This is not a time-capsule that should be opened after 50 years. Rather, it is an unsealed letter, which I hope you will discover decades from now when some of your forbears have already gone, and the circumstances surrounding your birth may have either been lost or forgotten, in the interminable grind of life.
Even before you were born you were an unseen magnet - a unifier. From Virginia to San Jose and San Diego your busy uncles and aunt trooped to Bakersfield like migrating salmon leaping through rushing rivers to unite at the shallow streams where life starts, because they knew that you would be born.
A few nights before your first yell, your kin were already celebrating your imminent appearing over mugs of beer and plates of delicious food.
In the main limelight was your mom under the watchful eyes of the doctors. Her blood pressure was precariously high and her kidneys were starting to buckle under the strain. The decision to bring you out ahead of the safest allowable date weighed heavily on the doctors' minds.
You too were being monitored and the first sign showing that your mom's condition was also affecting you was the urgent signal to deliver you by cesarean section.
While on the operating table the first thing the surgeon noticed as he looked into the incision of your mom's uterus was the umbilical cord neatly coiled around your neck, not once, but twice. The decision to bring you out by cesarean section was then not only the best... it was your only safe option. From then on you would be considered by the doctors as a miracle.
I don't have the slightest idea of what you would have become 20 - 30 years from this writing, but I trust that God's presence in your first breath will always keep you trusting Him and sharing His love to others.
just look at the smile on your grandpa and grandma's faces. Uncle Benny drove 4 hours from San Jose just to be there for you.
Aunt Elaine and uncle Banjong... from San Diego and Virginia.
The hospital where you were born... don't mind the riotous
crowd in front.
your dad and mom dressed and ready for the operating room
your ever supportive grandmother
finally you're out...but you go straight into our own bubble for a few days until your lungs fully mature. you also had to be treated for a spike of bilirubin in the blood.
The photo before your uncles and aunt head back to their own worlds.
I hope you enjoyed my own perspective of your birth. I'm in Bangkok Thailand - half a world from where you were born, as I tap this letter on the computer. We also had a small gathering here to celebrate your life.
I love you,
Lolo Sunni
