The Journey Begins....Again: My Namesake

So today was one of the coolest experiences I have had at the orphanage so far. I was down in the office this morning and I was told we were receiving a new baby girl from the public maternity hospital today. The social worker asked if she could borrow my camera to take to the hospital with her so that she could take pictures of the baby. Each child who enters the orphanage has a baby book. This includes pictures from day #1 when they have entered our Home and the pictures and information on the baby/child continue until he is adopted or reunited with his birth family.

I asked the social worker if I could tag along and help her pick up the baby, and she agreed. Before leaving, I picked out some newborn clothes to bring to the hospital. We got to the hospital after making side trips to 3 different schools to pick up some of our other children. Then the two of us entered the maternity hospital and met with the birth mother and grandmother. The birth mother is 25 years old. This is her 5^th baby and she is a drug addict and alcoholic. Having not been on drugs for this past week that she has been in the hospital, she was having withdrawals. However she was very pleasant with us. After signing different papers, we were escorted to the nursery. The social worker asked if I would like to scrub in and “receive” the baby. So I went in and a few minutes later walked out with an 8 day old baby girl.

Now the entire hallway of patients/visitors is staring at me. Who is this white girl walking out with a newborn? Among those staring was the birth mother. She asked if she could hold her baby again. She was visibly upset about having to hand over her baby. She finally handed her back and I was instructed not to let go of the baby. There are people who hang around the hospital who might try to steal the baby. With that information, I got into a taxi with the baby and the social worker. I was laughing to myself remembering the video of Tim and Diane bringing home Ethan from the hospital. Tim drove super slow and Ethan was placed securely in his infant seat. Not the case here, I held the baby in the back of the taxi. No seatbelts and crazy driving!

We arrived back to the Home where the tías welcomed her to her new home. She did not have a name, so the social worker decided to name her after me and so her name is Jennifer. She is very tiny and if I did the conversion right only weighs 4.4 lbs. Her weight today was 2008 grams…..Jennifer is doing well and she is absolutely precious!