A Trip to Babyland General Hospital

If you didn't know there is a special hospital in the middle of nowhere Georgia where the Cabbage Patch dolls are born.  At this hospital there is a little self-guided tour of the history of CPKs and a museum of some vintage dolls over the years.

But the real reason you go out there is to witness the birth of a hand made, soft faced doll.  If you've never been, there is a giant room full of adoptable babies.  Some of them are in cribs waiting for their mommy or daddy to adopt them. Others are still in cabbage leaves also waiting for a home.

In the center of this room is a tree. The magical birthing tree.  It's under this tree that the cabbage babies are born.  With a full audience and a nurse in scrubs, the group cheers PUSH and other such nonsense.

Since we were invited to go as part of our friend Zoe's fourth birthday, all the girl and their mommas stood patiently under the birthing tree to see what baby cabbage would be born that day.  It was a boy!  And Miss Zoe got to name him.  She chose Henry James after her soon to be born baby brother.

We had a great time celebrating Zoe's big day!  Cupcakes, golfish, and apple juice - oh my! Evie was in heaven.

After snack Evie and I walked around looking for her "special baby".  Eric and I had talked about treating Evie to a CPK for her birthday, but my parents offered to do it for her Christmas gift so we took them up on that.  

While I was trying to find the perfect baby with blue eyes and a tuff of light brown hair, Evie picked out her very own "special baby" out of the crib.  She pointed to a bald one with blue eyes and said, "Mommy, dat's Evie's spe-ial baby"

What's a mom to do, right?  So we went through the adoption process to take home Evie's bald baby.

We made our way to the cashier where I thought they'd just hand us the baby's birth certificate with a pre-assigned name, like the store bought CPK kids come with.

But no. We had to name this baby.  oy.  I can't name my own kids, now I have 13 minutes before the hospital closes to name my daughter's special baby.

The pressure.

Alyshia helped me peek in all the boxed babies in the gift shop. We started reading the prenamed baby's certificates.  We found one named Holly Jane.  I like the name Holly but could never name a daughter that (Holly Buergler? yeah, no) so this was a great candidate.  In a split second Alyshia yelled HOLLY JOY as Evie, the baby and I walked in to the adoption room.  "It's got a Catholic flair now" (This is why I love her).

So Evie and I went in to the special adoption room where she named her baby and pledged to take care of her.

As silly as this place is, it was SUCH a fun day hanging out with some of my favorite ladies and their little girls.

And more than anything I loved spending one-on-one time with Evie picking out her special baby, Holly Joy.