the miracle we seldom ponder upon.....

After waiting for a full 9 months, Nel finally felt the continuous contractions and the urge to push... we got her into the ambulance right away and sped through the 70km between Tungku and Lahad Datu town, all along the way encouraging her to take short deep breaths and not to push... although the ambulance is equipped just enough to allow a proper child delivery on-the-go but you don't want to imagine the clean-up afterwards...

What usually takes us 50 minutes took us only a bit short of 40, and even the baby came out as soon as the nurses got Nelly prepped for delivery... it was short and sweet because she came fully dilated but can't imagine how she can go through all that full 10cm without as much as complaining of pain...

Baby came out healthy and pink. What I treasure most while working in Tungku is the relationship I've had with the staff -- made up of mostly from outstation, we bonded very closely -- and the best part about it, I was honoured to name a few of their babies.

Wow, naming babies -- christening them with a mark, an identity (not to be confused with personality) that stays longer than a lifetime... first time I got this assignment I felt as if I had the task of creating the world...

Nelly's firstborn I named ADAM ZACHERY.

Babies are such a wonderful miracle... considering all the risks that could have turned disastrous throughout the period of pregnancy, it is really remarkable how much these little ones have fought through just to see the first glimpse of light.

After suctioning the airways to clear it from embryonic fluid (those days they used to hang the baby upside down and pat on the bumbum to make the baby cry and clear the airways) Adam was cleaned and dried. There is a list for the nurse to go through to make sure they don't miss anything during the first baby assessment, like counting the fingers, the toes, checking for cleft palate etc...

The the head would be measured, then the chest and the length (we don't say height until a child can stand up to be measured).

I the little stares that babies give you unknowingly when you look at them. Then they'll just jeling, turn away and continue with their own business -- mostly sleeping. It always make me ponder, this wondrous bunch of potential, that is barely the size of my thunder thigh, with hands so small that wraps around my little finger, will one day grow up and be somebody. If he were to see me again, what would he say to me?

We celebrated Adam's full-moon slightly late, but we still had the welcoming party to initiate him into this stage we call World, and this play we call Life.

Adam and Nelly at approx 6 weeks.

Arteo, Adam and Nelly at approx 12 months...

Adam and Jesse at approx 12 months...

Adam and friends at approx 15 months...

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Adam Zachery,

I have missed much of your growing milestones, and though not intentionally, would probably miss much more... I wish so much to see you through your first words, your first steps, your first tricycle ride, your first homework from school, your first school concert performance. I want so much to be there for your first fall, your first bruise, when your baby tooth falls off...

Before I knew it you'd probably grown up to be a handsome, strong man, a total heart-breaker, hehehe...

Before you break any hearts, these words I borrowed from Shakespeare for you to ponder...

And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade.

Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet, Act I, sc III

love,
Uncle Roddy