The Tale of the Wrong Way Aviator

In 1990 we were renting a cute little house in a small village in Germany called Steinbach. The heat in our house was provided by radiators fueled by coal oil from a huge tank in the garage. We were on a pretty tight budget and it had cost us $1200 to fill the oil tank. It was supposed to last at least a year. Corey was scheduled to be delivered by C-section on the 15th of November. On the 10th our heat went out, and it was freezing! We thought we were out of fuel (the tank sounded empty) and it had only been 3 months! We didn't have another $1200 to fill up the tank and being full of pregnancy hormones and worry I cried myself to sleep. I awoke at about 2am having painful contractions and knew he wasn't waiting for the 15th. He probably wanted to get out of there to cheer me up. :) We called my good friend Beth to come watch the girls and headed off to the hospital in Kircheim Bolanden about 20 minutes away.

We still didn't know what we were going to name this child, and although we didn't know the sex, we were pretty sure it was a boy. When you're in the military stationed overseas the only English speaking station you get on television is AFN (Armed Forces Network). It doesn't have regular commercials, mainly just informational tidbits. I had been carrying this baby very high. As I was laying on the table and we were still trying to decide on a name, my husand remarked that it was like the baby was trying to come out the wrong way. Instantly we were both reminded of one of those little info tid bits from television about "wrong way Corrigan". He was an American aviator who in 1938 set off from New York city headed to Long Beach, CA. He ended up in Ireland! Thus the nickname, "wrong way Corrigan". Corey! We loved the name instantly, even though we still didn't even know if we were having a boy. And of course when he came out just a few minutes later, we loved him instantly. He was so wide awake. They brought him over to me and laid him on my chest and he just stared at me. It was so amazing. :) He was the best birthday present a mother could ever ask for!

We got to spend a nice warm week in the hospital while daddy figured out the heating issue at home. Thankfully, we were not out of fuel, and the landlord was able to fix it in time for us to come home. All's well that ends well...and boy did it end well! Happy Birthday Corey! I love you!