College Basketball Championship & Carson

On April 7th, 2008 The Memphis Tigers and the Kansas Jayhawks battled it out for the National Championship of college basketball! I was sooo excited for that game! Both teams were playing amazing and no one knew which team was going to budge. I drove straight from work to Walmart to buy some snacks for the game. While there my cell phone rang and Britney was on the phone, and wow, what a National Championship night we ended up having. Britney was in labor with Carson!

I scrambled through the store buying enough food to last us for the next couple of days and sprinted through the self checkout stand. I sped home and within an hour of the initial phone call we were sitting in the hospital prepping ourselves for the birth of our 2nd child. Britney was soooo excited to finally be to that point, to know that within a matter of hours the little guy who had been kicking her from the inside was going to be snuggling with her on the outside. This night was going to be the culmination of her 9 month ordeal to bring this little spirit into the world, and we were sooo excited to meet our little guy.

This night was also going to be the culmination of a long road for either Memphis or Kansas. Neither team had been the favorite heading into the tournament, but on April 7th one of them knew they’d walk away a champion.

As the night progressed, I turned on the game to help settle my nerves while Britney tried to rest up for the ordeal ahead. In the 2nd half Memphis guard Derrick Rose went off, making shots from all over the court and pushed Memphis to a 7 point lead with very little time on the clock. Memphis was on their way to the championship… if only they could make their foul shots down the stretch.

Instead, the Tigers repeatedly missed from the charity stripe and gave Kansas new life. Then with 3.6 seconds left Kansas guard Mario Chalmers with ice in his veins drained a 3 point shot to tie the game and send it into overtime. In OT Memphis had nothing left and Kansas dominated the extra period and waltzed away from San Antonio with the National Championship in tow that Memphis should have won.

In a matter of minutes Memphis went from jubilation to total devastation. At around the same time Britney was facing the same kind of feelings. Her labor wasn’t progressing and the nurses decided to send her home. She was devastated! She had been sooo close to her goal only to have it postponed.

We drove home, in hushed silence, just allowing each other to feel the presence of the other. It was a hard night for both of us.

Then the morning came…

At around 5:00am Britney woke me with a look of sheer excitement on her face. Her water had broken. I never thought I’d see a pregnant woman jumping up and down when her water broke, but Britney came close. We hurried and picked up the bags that we hadn’t unpacked from the night before and drove off to the hospital, for our 2nd shot at meeting our little guy.

At 12:44pm on April 8th, 2008 Carson Dean Quarnberg was born. Earlier that day I had watched some of ESPN’s coverage of the National Championship game from the night before while Britney was resting and had listened to Mario Chalmers talk about the joy he felt when he sank the game tying three pointer. As I lifted Carson up for the first time I realized that the joy Chalmers must have felt paled in comparison to the joy I was feeling at that moment. Our little guy had come into the world safely, with 10 toes, 10 fingers, strong lungs, a strong heart and a sweet and sincere personality.

Yeah, the "sweet and sincere" personality has changed a little bit… (Carson loves to eat, and doesn’t like his dinner to be delayed! Watch out for those teeth of his!) But I still get that feeling of sheer joy each time I hold him, and each time I look at his beautiful mommy and appreciate the sacrifices she has made to bring our 2 kids into the world.

I’ll never watch another National Championship game without thinking of Carson’s birth, and without realizing just how insignificant basketball really is in the grand scheme of things.

Happy 1st B-Day Carson! We love you!