My son received an assignment from school. They needed a one and half page on a event that changed my life. The results of the exercise are listed below. My thanks to Mtrav for the editing.
A Life Changing Event
We all knew in a few short months after my wife found out she was pregnant that a new life was to come into our lives. We read books, we tested names with each other, we looked for houses as our one-bedroom apartment would not work for a new arrival. "Can't we get a partition for the living room?" was my suggestion. Something my wife would have no part of. A string of events had thrusted us into rapid adulthood. Melinda and I, after being married for 4 1/2 years, were working hard. I took on an extra job at nights after my regular job to pay off bills. Melinda was still going to court reporting school and working part time. We were a young married couple working our butts off to keep ahead of the bills and school tuition. A whirlwind of looking at houses and baby-related items soon consumed our already busy life.
We were exited on our new arrival, but also unsure of the future: Would we get into a house in time? Things were slow at my day job. What type of parents would we be? Will our baby be healthy? And a hundred other thoughts that would creep into our everyday lives.
After a particular busy night at my part-time job, after working 14+ hours, a coworker approached me. We began to talk. I think he noticed the tiredness in my eyes and some of the apprehension that was in my body language. I opened up to him that I was nervous. We had bills. We were living paycheck to paycheck. We had to buy a house in a few short months. I would have another person to take care of, another mouth to feed, a face that looked up to me for the answers. How was I to do all this? When are we going to find a house? Where was the money going to come from? And how was I going to be able to handle all of the new responsibility that is imminent? He paused and thought for a few seconds and said, "God has sent you this gift, the gift of your child. You are blessed." It seemed so simple. I hoped for more information, a dissertation of economic growth with age, a hope of a windfall in the future. I asked him, "What about the money?" He replied with the same confident tone as before, "The money will come." "What about the house?" I asked. "You will find a nice house," he replied.
You see, Ray (Raja) was from Pakistan and in his culture the addition of a baby to the family was a great joy, a blessing. One from his country did not think about all the little things that were burdening my mind. All that was thought about was the great joy that was going to come in the future. All items other than a healthy child were not a worry to his culture. If God has granted this blessing upon you, then your blessings would continue.
As the months went on, my daytime employer closed their business. I found a new job with a bigger salary. We eventually found a house, a small starter 1200 SQ foot home that seemed huge to us at the time. We painted the nursery. We prepped the house. We threw ourselves into getting ready for our new arrival. As my friend Ray suggested, the money was there. I don't know how, but we managed to pull it together just in time for our new arrival.
About three weeks before my son's due date, I received a call at work with nothing but tears from my wife's shaky voice. I was scared. Was something wrong? She managed to tell me after a few minutes that it was time. She had went to the doctor's early in the morning to check on some water leaking. The doctor did not want to risk it and decided they wanted to induce labor today. "Today? But we haven't even went in for our birthing classes." "Today" was her reply. After a couple of hours of waiting to settle into the hospital, waiting for doctors, and a few hours for labor, my son was born at 6:30 P.M., February 15, 1994.
Up until that point, I had only cried a couple of times in my life, all of which I can't remember. I cried that day with tears of joy as I looked at my son for the first time. The busyness of the world stopped for just a few moments as I gazed at my new son. I realized that everything was going to be okay and that, as Ray had predicted, I was truly blessed.
