While it didn't exactly work as planned due to complications on the Afghanistan end, a soldier only had to wait a day to meet his new baby this week through a Skype connection linking the war-torn country and Chambersburg Hospital.
Army Specialist Tim Parker had an emotional reunion Thursday with his wife, LaKay, and met his newborn daughter just over 24 hours after Katie Belle Parker's birth.
Parker deployed to Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division's Task Force Eagle Assault on March 18. The couple had just learned that LaKay was pregnant with their first child.
Parker was home once during the summer, just in time to learn their child would be a girl and see a sonogram photo.
Saying goodbye to Tim was hard in March, and LaKay decided to come to Chambersburg, where her in-laws live, to have the baby, even though the Parkers owned a home near Fort Campbell, Ky., the 101st home base.
She later went to Alabama to see her family and be close when Parker was home on leave in July.
This fall, she came back to Chambersburg, deciding that she wanted their child born in her husband's home town.
Although the couple knew it was unlikely that Parker would be able to come home for the birth, they had hoped that with the help of a Skype video-conferencing hookup the prospective father might be able to participate in LaKay's labor and see his mother cut the newborn's cord.
A war half a world away got in the way, and it wasn't until 24 hours
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later that the soldier was able to see his first child.
Instead, Parker's mother, Tanangela Anderson, coached LaKay through her labor and witnessed the baby's birth, then cut the cord, hoping she would later be able to adequately express the emotions and describe to her son the bravery displayed by her daughter-in-law.
When that video conference call finally came late Thursday night, the transmission was choppy and there were two-minute time lags on each end of the conversation.
"But the message definitely came across," Anderson said.
Parker was emotional, but seemed very happy as he and his wife tried to carry on a conversation.
She said Katie Belle's response to her father was something she will always remember and hold close to her heart."She heard his voice and briefly opened her eyes," Anderson said. "She knew it was her daddy." Katie Belle was born at 8:17 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Chambersburg Hospital. She weighed in at eight pounds, three and a half ounces and was 21 inches long.
The current deployment is Parker's second stint with the 101st in Afghanistan. He is a 2005 graduate of Chambersburg Area Senior High School.
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