IT'S A BOY!

Anderson Haskell

9 pounds  or 4.06 Kilos of pure love
21inches or 53 centimeters of sunshine

June 21, 2013

New Delhi, India

We arrived in India - no surprise, it was hot. We met with the doctor, and were excited about the prospect of attending an ultrasound in a few days. But little Anderson heard his parents were in town, and couldn't wait to meet us. We hadn't slept in 36 hours so we went back to the hotel. The phone rang -

"This is Nabanita - did you get my email?"
I am not sure what I said exactly but I think it was something like "Uhugha...?"
"Your baby will be delivered via Cesarean in 30 minutes"
"Really?"Boy am I awake now!
"Yes, maam really"
She gave us the details to the hospital, and quickly we got dressed. My husband, who thought he was dreaming, was still talking about walking our dog who my mother is generously watching in Oklahoma.

We raced downstairs and the valet secured us a taxi. We didn't think we had time to call Rahul from Rahul's Western Taxi (fabulous service by the way- HIGHLY recommend them). Big mistake - our taxi smelled like urine, the taxi driver didn't speak English, and had no idea where he was going.  The nodding to the valet was just ceremonial. We would have arrived at the hospital much sooner if we would have just simply waited for one of Rahul's drivers.

But we made it, and just in the nick of time. We had time to have a drink of water,say a prayer for our surrogate mother and the baby, and then washed our hands before we heard the most beautiful words ever spoken in the English language:

"Would you like to meet your son?"

I looked back at my husband with tears forming in my eyes. He kissed my forehead and said "We have a son" ... I repeated "We have a son". We hugged and raced back to the nursery, took off our shoes, and put on the gowns provided.

And we finally saw the most incredible and beautiful little boy.

 

I was speechless, which is really a rare and uncommon event in itself. I am in complete awe that I have the privilege to be his mother.

He is stunning, perfectly pink (no signs of jaundice), and has lungs that shake the walls. He is much larger than the other babies in the nursery, and I suppose the size gives him an audible advantage. His cry is endearing. I wanted to scoop him in my arms, and never let him go. Medically, it is better for him to be observed and monitored - not handed off to walking foggy zombie like people.

We snapped pictures and left him to his monitoring.

I enquired as to how our surrogate mother was doing, and with God's great blessings she is also doing well.   We went back to the hotel, and admired our photos as if they were an original Kandinsky....

We love him so...

 

“Mr. Wonka: "Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted."
Charlie Bucket: "What happened?"
Mr. Wonka: "He lived happily ever after.” Roald Dahl

Thank you to all at SCI, Dr. Shivani, and our amazing and beautiful surrogate mother for helping us to achieve our very own happily ever after......