Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so pleased to announce that Flaviette (Marzette’s sister) had a baby girl on June 1st at 7:18pm. Her name is Wennancia (Pronounced Way-Nan-seeya) and I was honored to be there holding Flaviette’s hand while she gave birth… and to see Wennancia take her first breath of fresh air. It was incredible and I feel so blessed and honored to have been a part of it.
It started
Saturday morning. Flaviette had just come back from the Dr.’s office and I
asked her when the baby was going to come (technically her due date was May 20th)
She told me she was going to have the baby that night at 8pm and they were
leaving at 7pm. I asked if it would be a C-section. (I pantomimed by sawing my
arm). She said no. I was really confused, but at the same time I was like,
“hey, whatever. Bring on Da Baby!”
Around 5pm
I went to check on her. She was already having pretty close contractions and
told me we were waiting for her friend to bring a taxi. The next thing you
know, we’re in a taxi and I’m the only one making exciting noises (like
“Woooohoo!!!!” and “IT’S BABY TIME!”). But nobody else was really feelin my
jive. Oops.
We arrived
at the midwife’s house and pounded on the outside gate. It felt like we were
waiting there for an eternity. Flaviette kept having contractions and I was
hollering my loudest saying “Hodio” which basically means “Is anyone there?/Can
I come in?/knock knock!” But in this case it was “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, LADY!
SHE’S GOING TO HAVE A BABY ON YOUR DOORSTEP IF YOU DON'T HURRY UP!!!!!!!”
We were
finally let in and Flaviette was instructed to walk around awhile. I kept
making funny jokes but nobody was laughing cuz… well… my jokes were in English
and nobody understood them. But let me tell you, I was quite the funny one that
night!
There were
four of us women there with Flaviette. Me, Tsiri, Safidy, and Flaviette’s
distant relative (I don’t remember her name). It was so beautiful how in unison
us women were. We each had our own job with assisting: holding the IV bag,
holding Flaviette’s head up, pushing on the stomach, and then there was my job
– holding her hand! J
After a few minutes of our duties, our hearts started pumping faster and we all
took off our winter layers at the same time.
And after a
few pushes…before you know it… there she was. A beautiful baby girl. And as she
took her first cry, the four of us joined as well, as if on cue. It was
astonishing and breathtaking and absolutely beautiful. It was impossible not to cry.
After the
little one got cleaned and clothed, I got to hold her. I showed her to her
mommy who was still too weak to hold her. Flaviette said “fotsy be!” (very
white) “look a-like Sarah!”
“Hey that’s
fun!” I said. “You have a vazaha (foreigner) baby!”
I don’t
know why, but they said Flaviette couldn’t talk for a while – that she needed
to rest. She was very weak and tired and wasn’t even able to hold or nurse the
baby yet. To fill the time, little Wennancia just nibbled on her hands…which
seemed to satisfy her pretty well. I was nervous about Flaviette and I knew
there wasn’t anything I could do at the time, so I just prayed and asked the
Holy Spirit to give her strength.
By the time
everything was cleaned up it was 8:30pm and the four of us looked at each
other… “noana ve ianareo?” (Y’all hungry?) We all glanced at each other,
nervous to be the first one to admit… but each of us gave head nods. Yeah, you bet we were hungry. We fed Flaviette and
ourselves and waited for our ride to come get us and bring us home.
I couldn’t help but think about Marzette and
Solange throughout all of this. I miss them so intensely and wish so much that
they could’ve been here for this. But all I can do is give thanks for the
opportunity to see their sweet little niece come into this world. And I look
forward to the day when they return and can give kisses to the same little
cheeks I got to, and will continue to smother with kisses.
This
morning, Flaviette came back to ILOFAV. She is still tired but doing much
better. She said Wennancia is very naughty and kept crying unless Flaviette was
holding her. She’s like Marzette… she loves a good snuggle :)
