Going Rogue: An American Life (56 page)

safet world through

responsible development of our conventional sources as we built our AGIA gasline. And 1 teminded Texas that there is an inherent link between energy and security, energy and prosperity, energy and peace.

The audience graciously gave me a standing ovation. Then 1

handed the mic back to Rick and walked off the stage.

“Hey,” Rick dtawled OVet the sound system with a chuckle,

“we’re not finished with the program!”

1 turned around, smiled, waved, and kept moving.

“1 know you’re pregnant,” Rick said, joking into the mic. “But don’t tell me you’re going off to have the baby right now!”
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The audience laughed. I smiled and waved goodbye.
I thought,
if

I reached Todd ar rhe exir, and he eyed me wirh a grin, “Love rhis srare, bur we can’r have a fish picker born in Texas.” Ir was a calm, relarively restful flight home. The flight crewmembers, cheerfully representing what’s got to be the most accommodaring sector of customer service, were their usual impressive selves. One broughr me tea while I confessed to Todd that I may not have handled the whole pregnancy announcement thing right.

“He’ll be here so soon, I didn’t have time to prepare anyone, not even the kids,” I said. “I should have given everyone rhat letter already. I feel guilty knowing that I’ll put them through more shock when he’s born.” Todd said he didn’t know if we handled it right, either. He held my hand and we prayed together that God would prepare other hearts, since we had not. I asked again that I’d be prepared, too.

Many hours

two plane f1ighrs later, with Todd and our

daughters nearby, I delivered Trig Paxson Van Palin ‘into the world at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. When the nurse placed him in my arms, I was overwhelmed with love and with wonder. I knew God had answered my prayer so completely. He just nestled softly into me as if to say, …
I’m

Mom.

I was glad God brought him

us early. We were so anxious

to meet him. I hadn’t known what to expect. I didn’t know what he would look like or how I would feel. But when I saw him, my heart was flooded with unspeakable joy. I knew that not only had God made Trig different but He had made him perfect.

The girls genrly cooed aod cuddled and quietly helped swaddle their new baby brother. Todd beamed. I heard him whisper to CBj, “Hmmm, he doesn’t look Downs.”

SARAH

PALIN

CB] looked up at Todd and gave him a kind, knowing smile. When I look at my beautiful son today, I know what her smile meant. She sees it in the eyes of other parents who have a child that perhaps our world doesn’r consider precious or prized. I see photos of Trig and can recognize the physical traits that let all Downs children look like brothers and sisters, the characteristics thar may puzzle some who, just like me a few months prior, don’t yet understand. But looking at these children in real life, we see only perfection.

12

“Go to hell, but resign first.”

The message was pirhy and concise. And ir reflected rhe sentiments of some in the oil industry toward me and my team. But this particularly crisp instruction was sent to DNR Commissioner Irwin by a North Slope oil services company employee. Tom Irwin’s recent actions had prompted the e-mail. For the twenty-second rime, ExxonMobil had submitted its plan to begin drilling in the Point Thomson Unit but still had not drilled. These domestic supplies of energy were needed. So, with my full support, Tom played hardball and took steps to prove that Exx
onMobil was in default of its lease agreements.
My administration announced that for the state’s and country’s sake, ExxonMobil would no longer be allowed to just warehouse America’s resources. After all these decades, if the largest company in the world wasn’t going to abide by its contracts to drill, we would rebid the leases and find a company that would.

That resulted in the kind note to Tom from an industry player about his employment future and eternal destination. Adjacent to the much-discussed ANWR area, Point Thomson is a North Slope parcel of srate-owned land that holds trillions of

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Going Rogue

cubic feet of clean natural gas and an equally