First Time Around

So the day is fast approaching when I am going to meet my new kid. It’s strange, but I am pretty at peace with this one. When Gabriel was coming, A LOT was going through my mind. First and foremost had been the thoughts of Carrie having complications during the delivery. After all the initial panic attack feelings had passed, we quickly began planning for the arrival of our first kid. I remember the day that we went into the hospital. It was a surreal experience because I always pictured the Hollywood scene where the father was rushing the mother who was obviously in a great deal of pain into the emergency room. That was so not our story. We casually walked into a book store to select some reading materials during our time in the hospital and even picked out a name book since we had not settled on a name for the soon to be arriving child. We still had no idea what gender it was going to be. Not because we grew up in some ancient civilization. It was simply because Carrie and I had no desire to find out the gender. I seriously married the coolest chick on earth. She and I looked at each other during the way to the ultrasound and she asked me “do you want to know?”

“I don’t care” was my reply.

“Neither do I” was hers.

We never looked back since.

So once we checked out of the store we casually drove to the hospital and checked in to have our baby. No speeding, no honking, no panic, it was like we were on our way to a movie.
I remember sitting in the hall when Carrie was taken into the surgery room to get prepped for the c-section. I was in my wicked awesome hospital gown, sitting all alone in the hall way, with my camera in my hand. I heard all kinds of noise coming from the room that they wheeled Carrie into. A lot of crazy thoughts ran through my head, but one by one doctors and medical staff began to enter the room and congratulating me on what was sure to take place. Their confidence boosted mine and I was ready to face the screaming, peeing, and pooping baby that was soon to be mine.

The moment that I heard doctor Bair’s voice saying “David, when I count to 3 I want you to stand and look over the screen and announce to your wife the gender” my heart dropped into the bottom of my shoe. Before I knew it he said 3 and up I went trying to look over what seemed like the highest wall of blue sheeting that I have ever been faced with. Once I had reached the summit I saw the nastiest, most slimy, and yet most amazing little body. It took me all but two seconds to orientate myself and I quickly began to search for the legs. I then uttered the hardest thing it was for me to say. “It’s… It’s a boy!!!”

Not a lot of things take my breath away, that one nearly dropped me to my knees. I was a daddy.

Hope

As with every election I find myself feeling a lot of mixed emotions. Sad that it’s over (yes I am one of those sick twisted people who enjoyed this), excited for the future, worried about the choices we have made, but something that I honestly haven’t felt in a long time when speaking about Politics, hope.

You know I have so many emotions rolling around in my head, and more importantly in my heart, that I don’t know where to start. I don’t know who Barack Obama is going to be. I am not sure if he is going to live up to the expectations that millions of people around the world have of him. Some people might say “Well he is after all just a man.” That doesn’t fly with me. He is a man, sure I know that, however he is a man that has ignited hope in the hearts of millions. He is the author of that hope. He asked us to believe in him. He asked us to give him something more than power, he asked us to give him our hearts. I think his expectations are higher than any other President in history, and I don’t allow him to escape from that responsibility. He had the audacity to plant the seed of hope in the hearts of so many millions of people. If he doesn’t live up to the promise of the man he has promised to be, then god have mercy on his soul.

I am optimistic. I am excited. I am nervous. I am hopeful… at least he has lived up to one promise. He has brought hope to my heart.

The world that my son was born into will differ a great deal from the world my unborn child will be born into. The due date is January 21st, One day into the Obama administration. My child will only know a world where a man/women of color can be anything he/she wants to be. We’ve just made this world a better place. Now it's up to Barack Obama to do his part.

I voted Obama.