When seminary students James and Pamela Thompson evacuated their New Orleans apartment Aug. 27, the couple never dreamed they would be the parents of a baby girl less than 24 hours later.
When seminary students James and Pamela Thompson
evacuated their New Orleans apartment Aug. 27, the couple never dreamed
they would be the parents of a baby girl less than 24 hours later.
“Being from Florida, we’d been through hurricanes,”
says Pamela Thompson, who attends New Orleans Baptist Theological
Seminary along with her husband. “We just weren’t expecting to have a
baby during a hurricane.”
The couple’s story began when the seminary ordered a
mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached on Aug. 27.
Instead of checking into a New Orleans-area hospital to ride out the
storm, the couple researched their lodging options in other cities.
Hotels in Jackson, Miss., and Monroe were booked, so they traveled four hours that afternoon to Alexandria.
By the time they reached the central Louisiana town,
Thompson began experiencing labor pains and checked into Rapides
Regional Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
The next morning, Pamela and James Thompson called
their parents, who all attend the same Florida church. Ironically, a
member there has a daughter who attends Emmanuel Baptist Church in
Alexandria, the same church where Pamela Thompson’s doctor is a member.
“Our doctor joked that he would deliver our baby and make it back in time for church,” Thompson remembers.
“Well, he did that indeed.”
At 9:48 that Sunday morning, Makayla Mercy Thompson was born.
“Our parents are excited to have a new grandbaby,”
Thompson says. “(But) They both would’ve liked to have been here.”
When Makayla Thompson is older, she will know that
she brought a little bit of joy to her parents in a time when their
whole world seemed to be in disarray, her mother says. “I don’t know
what we’ll tell her when she is old enough to understand that she was
born during a hurricane,” Thompson explains. “You hear about these
kinds of stories on the news but don’t think it will happen to you.”
At press time, the couple was unsure of their future
plans. But they say they are certain of one thing – God was with the
seminary students throughout the ordeal.
“She was born by the grace of God in a place that
was safe and where our baby could be cared for,” James Thompson says.
“All things work together for good.”