Tonight, at 10:45 PM, São Paulo time, our first grandson, Lucas Donovan Portela, was born. As a matter of fact, although I am writing this on the 2nd, his birthday will always be celebrated on January 03. This because his parents live on the other side of the world, in Dhaka in Bangladesh, where they are eight hours ahead of us.
The last days have been full of prayers and attempts not to allow myself to worry too much, finding distraction in the Christmas and year’s end events. And God kept granting us moments of encouragement, in the midst of uncertainties linked to the fact that the baby was to be born at the time of a possibly problematic election, when curfews might be imposed, to a couple that normally goes around in rickshaws, in the capital of one of the poorest countries of the world.
We received the greatly expected phone call near noon here. The connection was bad, but we understood that her water had broken and that they were on their way to the hospital. I’m not sure how they got there, but I imagine that they must have been taken by some friend in his/her car. Much to our surprise, we did not have to wait for a new call. Although we had accompanied the pregnancy through e-mails, chats and Skype (with video and audio), we were not expecting to enjoy the blessings of the Internet during the birth. It wasn’t long before our daughter showed us a photo of our daughter-in-law in her hospital room and, immediately, we saw ourselves participating in the lengthy birth process.
Using his cell phone, David posted on Facebook about the frequency of the contractions, dilation, who was with her, etc. (A midwife friend was there taking turns with David—only one person could be with her at a time). Soon we found ourselves in the midst of a worldwide fan club of cousins, uncles and aunts, grandparents and friends, all reading and commenting on that Facebook page. All praying… I did my work in different parts of the house, but would take my laptop with me, checking about every three minutes to see if anything new had been posted.
Now and then, David would also telephone to keep us informed. His youngest brother, in the USA, knew of this and wrote “I’m going to call home now and everyone’s going to think its you calling. Muahaha!” And so he did. The interesting thing was that while he was talking with his dad, and I was reading what he had just written to his big brother, a new message appeared on the screen: David welcomed Lucas Donovan Portela into the world at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2009! Both mother and baby are well! And so we were the ones that gave the news to the jokester first-time uncle.
I ran to my in-laws’ bedroom to inform them of the arrival of their first great-grandchild. When I returned, however, I found the next notice— David was just informed Lucas shows some signs of distress and they want to keep him in observation for 48 hours…your prayers are appreciated!
Afterwards we found out that the nurses thought that Lucas had swallowed fluids during the birth. David called while he was filling out the paperwork at the registration desk and said that he was huge, but that he didn’t know his weight yet. He himself had not noticed anything abnormal about the baby. He had cried vigorously but they had only allowed his Mom to hold him for a few seconds before whisking him off to the neo-Natal ICU (at least they are in a hospital that has this, and with an empty crib!).
Some time later, a new message came in: David just saw a very pink and healthy-looking Lucas… And the friends and relatives continue writing back, with the men congratulating and commenting on his name, and the women giving tips and guidelines… Don’t let them give him a bottle… Avoid antibiotics… Insist that the baby needs to nurse…
I hope that the new Mother is resting now, after spending an entire night in labour. David says that she did not cry, despite much pain, but she let him know that he should get mentally prepared because she thought that she would shed tears when they got to the privacy of their home. As the daughter of missionaries, she has learned to adapt and fit in with difficult circumstances and to create peace and beauty in situations that are not always ideal. I have always admired her dynamic personality and how she has applied biblical principles to their relationships. Today she has again confirmed that she is a woman of valor, ready to face whatever comes—and it is she that God has granted us as our daughter-in-law and now as the mother of our grandson.
It’s getting late. I think I’ll go to sleep with my computer open by my bedside this night, so that I can check Facebook now and then or answer a call on Skype…. My sister and my friends tell me that being a grandmother is something incredibly special. They are probably right but, for today, I am feeling the weight of the physical and emotional suffering of my loved ones and of one more person for whom to pray and with whom to be concerned, at a distance for now, but personally in a few months, at least for a few days, God willing.
Until the next post, Betty