Just 3 Minutes

At 7:00 on Wednesday night, my cell phone rang. Joel was leaving work and wanted me to know that he would not be calling me at his usual time (he calls me after he leaves work at 2am Illinois time/midnight California time) for us to talk as he rides home. He was on his way home early last night. There was much excitement at his workplace. His boss came rushing through the facility with a golf cart to pick up Joel and get him out to his car. THE Call had come. Shafali was in labor - she thought. After a couple of days of Braxton Hicks (contraction like pains that mimic the real pains) and the loss of the mucus plug, the time was now. The contractions were 13 minutes apart.
After Joel got home he was told that their OB-GYN had told them that they shouldn't come to the hospital until the contractions were 5 minutes apart. Wow! Just 5 minutes apart! On top of that, they had about 40 minutes to go to get to the hospital. In my mind, that seemed to be cutting things particularly close. But, then again, I am not a doctor (I played one on TV once - OK, not really, but you get the picture). At 2am his time (his regular time to call anyway) he called with Shafali in the car on the way to the hospital. The contractions were now closer to 3 minutes rather than 5. Wow! Just 3 minutes!
At 7:30 this morning a text message saying that they had made it through the night and that Shafali was 3 cm dilated and they were doing fine. Then......nothing. For the rest of the morning and into lunch, no word. I'm sure they were busy. I didn't expect a lot of communication. Too much going on and you have to concentrate on what's happening in the room, for sure! How long would it take? How far along was Shafali? How were things going? Then, at 1:23 California time (3:23 in Illinois), my phone beeped. The beep meant that a message was coming through. I assumed it to be a text message from Joel - an update on the progress of the birth. Instead, no words, no explanation, no update, no report - just a picture; a picture worth a thousand words. The picture of my grandson.
Not too long afterward came a call from the proud papa. As he related the amazement that is inherent in experiencing the birth of your first child, he told me something that amazed me. Now, I was there for the birth of both Jonathan and Joel. I experienced what Joel experienced today. After Jonathan was born, I went out and called my mother who was too ill to attend the birth. Joanie's mother was with us during the whole delivery - as was Doug. I told my mom all that I could about what I had experienced. But the one thing I couldn't do was allow her to see her new grandchild. It would be nearly a month before we could travel to see her and allow her to have a few minutes with her new grand baby. She was robbed by the cancer of even being able to see her grandson for nearly 30 days. Now, nearly 3 decades later, her baby boy is being called by her grandson to share in the birth of a new grandchild. Like my own mother, we were not able to be there for the birth (we are on a plane to Illinois tomorrow). But there is one notable difference. I got to see my grandchild less than 5 minutes after his birth. You see the picture above, taken by Joel, was taken when Malachi David was only 3 minutes old. Captured on his cell phone, he sent it out to me within 5 minutes of the birth. Malachi was born at 3:19 on a Thursday afternoon in September - on the 13th. And at 3:23 on that same afternoon, his grandfather received the very first picture ever taken of Malachi. I didn't have to wait 30 days or even for tomorrow night to arrive. I only had to wait 3 minutes. Just 3 minutes. Ain't it amazing!