SACRIFICE..

                                     

                            

                                                          

“Push”, Dr. Adams coaxed one more time. Deirdre Johnson pushed with all her might, and as if a hurricane swept through her body, a tiny mass of well formed flesh and bone left her in a swift moment as Dr. Adams brought out a perfect little baby boy. She was exhausted and felt limp. She had been in labor for the last one and a half hours, after her parents and younger brother had gotten her to the hospital that night at about 9:15 pm, when the contractions had started. She had given birth at exactly 10:55pm that same night. The tiny cry of her baby touched her heart as she strained from the delivery table to look at him. The nurse had turned him upside, and had given him a slight tap on the bottom.

“I told you, it was going to be a boy”, Dr. Adams said, smiling at her and getting ready to stitch her up. She had incurred a tear. Her baby was quite big….3.5kg. Deidre could only nod in agreement. She didn’t have the strength to say anything or argue with him as she normally would have done during one of her visits to the hospital for pre-natal care. Deirdre sighed. She was happy yet sad. It was good to know she had become a mother and soon her little one would soon be running after her and calling her, “mummy”, requesting in his own tiny way that she meet his every need. It was a good feeling, but she couldn’t shake off the uncertainty of the future that had descended on her all of a sudden. What did the future hold for her and her baby? It was a question she couldn’t answer…..actually was afraid to answer! In her wildest dreams, she never would have thought she would become a single mother. How was she going to cope? She wondered. She had no job; no source of income; no money, no home, except for her dad’s house, where she had stayed for the last five months of her unexpected pregnancy. She felt like a disappointment. At the age of thirty, she was still feeding off her parent’s table! Although, she knew they didn’t mind but she knew that sooner or later she’d have to get her act together and do something about her independence.

As she reflected on the past, nothing had turned out the way she had planned. In retrospect, she was living the opposite of her dreams. Deirdre sighed again as the tears stung her eyes. She needed to get past this feeling and be grateful to God that she wasn’t homeless with a new born baby on the streets! She somehow knew she was going to pull through this phase but it wasn’t going to be easy at all; she wasn’t going to kid herself about that. Nevertheless, she was determined to make it no matter the circumstance she had found herself; at least for the sake of her baby. She had always been a fighter; a warrior, if she cared to admit. She wasn’t used to giving up not in the past, and certainly not now, especially with the responsibility of another human being on her shoulders. She’d fight till she broke through for the sake of her son, Jason and her own destiny.  At the thought of little Jason, a slow smile played around her lips. Just then, Dr. Adams and two other nurses who had assisted him in her delivery put her on anesthetics, preparing to stitch her up. And as the anesthetics began take effect, Deirdre felt drowsy as she felt like she was slipping fast into a deep tunnel at an intense and alarming speed she couldn’t control. She heard conversations from a far distance as the sharp piercing pain of the doctor’s needle went through her, instantly dulled by the anesthetics. Then, she felt numb. Suddenly, it was over.