Thursday, April 19, 2007

26 Years Ago

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Twenty-six years ago today was Easter Sunday. Melissa had been in town for about a week, walking me all over everywhere. On Saturday, she said, "Ronni, when are you going to have this baby? I have to be back in College Station by Tuesday."

We took Chandra to the City Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, and I waddled happily along. Easter morning, we were dyeing eggs in an artistic manner. (Melissa was an artist in batik.)

While she was etching elegant lines through the wax, Kevin and D'Lynn came by, and Kevin said, "When are you going to have that baby?" At that exact moment, I got one of those twinges and replied, "Today!"

Egg decoration forgotten, we threw a brisket on the barbie, called Ken and Marie, and decided it was a party.

As a side note, Kevin had been in the house when Chandra was born, through no fault of his own. He got abandoned there by his brother, who grabbed Kevin's truck and fled, muttering something like, as far as he was concerned, the natural way to get a baby was to go to the hospital and pick it up.

So, this time, the party consisted of all of the above, plus a couple of midwives. By dark thirty, when Vanessa finally decided to make her appearance, Kevin had left, but everyone else was still there, including SSS. I'm pretty sure he was taking pictures of me during contractions, though it might have been Melissa.

Chandra and I had picked out the names Vanessa, for a girl, and Michael for a boy. Back in those bygone days, the gender of a baby was a complete surprise until the moment of birth. I knew, if the baby was a boy, his middle name was going to be Raymond, but we decided that Daddy SSS should have some choice in the naming, so we gave him the choice of Ruth or Renee. He chose Renee, and my younger daughter's name is Vanessa Renee.

That old house practically crackled with energy, and a magic person was born on a magic night. I have just the one perfect picture of Newborn Vanessa.

Happy Birthday, Vanessa!!

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful pics.

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  2. Thank you. I scanned them in; they were taken with an old Olympus.

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  3. I love you too, mijita chiquidita!

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  4. That picture of you - you look truly beautiful.

    As does baby Vanessa.

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  5. Wow! Thanks, Nelly. Between contractions, you know!

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