May 11 – “No Cigar for Baby”

1:30 A.M.  Phone call comes from Kel.  "Can y'all come over and stay with the boys?  We are heading on to the hospital."  Of course we jump out of bed and hurry over.  Chris takes the couch.  I take both phones and head into the bedroom so she can sleep.   3:30 A.M.  Text from Kel comes.  "We are in an L & D room."   4:00 A.M.  Text from Kel comes.  "She is at a 4.  70%."   5:13 A.M.  Phone call from Christina.  "We have had a development.  Kel is in the emergency room.  My mom is with him.  I'm here by myself.  Can y'all come on up and bring the boys?"  I groggily reply, "Emergency room?"  She chuckles nervously, "Yes.  He went into the bathroom, and the next thing we heard was a loud crash.  He passed out and hit his head on the bathtub.  He was knocked out cold.  They took him to the emergency on a gurney."  (Kel told me later that they tried to do an MRI and a CT scan and all kinds of blood tests.  He refused them all and said, "Look, I have vaso-vagal synchope.  This happens all the time.  I have a headache.  I'll take some ibuprofen.  Now let me out of here so I can go back upstairs and watch my baby be born."  He finally convinced an ER doctor to let him go.).   6:10 A.M.  The boys are all loaded, we have gas in the car, we have stopped by our house so Chris and I could change clothes, and we are in the car, on our way to Texas to the hospital.   6:40 A.M.  We are in stop and go traffic near Hobby Airport.  Text comes from Kel.  "Water broke."  Wonder if his use of fewer words is a result of his brain shakeup?   7:20 A.M.  We arrive at St. Luke's Hospital.  As we walk across the  sky bridge we get a call from Kel.  "Aunt Jen will meet you in the waiting room to take the boys.  Tell Mom to hurry up and get up here.  This baby will be here in thirty minutes."  Chris takes off.  I call Aunt Jen, and she doesn't answer her phone.  No service inside.  I don't know which waiting room.  Me and the boys stop in the main lobby and sit down to wait.  I call Kel and he says he will try to track her down.  Soon Chris calls and says they can't find her.  They think she went to the McDonalds in the building, but we should come to the third floor waiting room.  We swing by the McDonalds and there is no sign of Aunt Jen, so we head for the purple elevators.  Sure enough, we enter the labor and delivery waiting room, and there is Aunt Jen … waiting.  She takes the boys off for an adventure in exploring the hospital.  I take the opportunity to catch a few winks.  8:15 A.M.  Christina's mom calls out, "Mr. Vaughan, would you like to come back now?"  Well, of course.  I hurry in and there is Kel, holding his brand new … son number three.  Josiah Cristian Vaughan was born at 7:56 A.M.  He weighed in at eight pounds, eleven ounces, and was 20 ¼ inches long.  Kel beamed as he introduced me.  He said, "Now we have a prophet (Micah), a priest (Jachin) and a king (Josiah).  We wanted a good king, and David just didn't work."   I got the privilege of holding the little man for awhile.  He was alert, with kind of dark hair, long eyelashes, and wide, interested eyes.  He was happy to be hanging out with DadDad, of course.  Jachin and Micah arrived shortly after with Aunt Jen.  They were great to watch with Josiah.  Jachin was the ever-cool oldest brother.  He jumped at the chance to hold him in his lap all by himself.  Micah was a little more cautious about the whole experience.  He didn't quite understand the new wardrobe Mommy was wearing.  He did finally crawl up in his Dad's lap and the two of them held Josiah together.  Someone asked Jachin and Micah, "What are you two older brothers planning to teach your little brother?"  Micah had an answer right away, "Flipovers.  And jumping."  Jachin was a bit more pensive, then added, "I'll show him Legos."  Then, remembering that babies shouldn't play with Legos because they may eat them - something that he learned from Mom babysitting cousin Cailyn – Jachin quickly said, "Well, maybe Duplos."   After things settled down a bit, Aunt Jen and the boys left to spend the night with their cousins in Houston.  Their car seats were in the car we drove, so Chris and I met them in McDonalds to make the swap.  They had stopped for a quick breakfast.  And there in McDonalds we saw a good friend from our college days, Tim.  He is now a pastor, and last summer he brought a group down to Seaside that led Vacation Bible School and did some work on our building for us.  One of his church members had a daughter undergoing heart surgery.  It was great to see him.   We finally convinced Kel to get something to eat.  It usually takes him a day or two to fully recover from his passing out episodes, and he was still feeling kind of woozy.  We went down to McDonalds and grabbed a sausage McMuffin.  Then he remembered that he had to go out to the car and get Christina's pillow.  We headed on while Art, Christina's Dad, stopped at the gift shop to get some flowers.  Before we went back upstairs I remembered that Kel needed something to give away to announce the birth.  I figured the gift shop had some of those bubble gum cigars that said "It's a Boy" on them.  So I went up to the volunteer working at the counter and asked if they had any.  The little lady was old-school Oriental, and had a very thick accent.  She looked horrified at me and said, "No.  No.  No.  No cigar for baby."  Ah.  Failure to communicate.  Language barrier and all that.  I tried again, "No.  Not a real cigar.  A bubble gum cigar."  After about a three count she let out a relieved sigh and said, "Ah.  Bubble gum on shelf right behind you."  Sure enough, there they were.  Except they had milk chocolate, fruity flavored gum, or bubble gum to choose from.  I asked Kel what he wanted, and he picked plain old bubble gum.  Great choice.  So I went to check out.  The same little volunteer rang it up and said, "$16.24."  Wanting to make this as simple as possible for her, I handed her a twenty, a one, and a quarter.  She smiled, took it, and looked long at it.  The same look of confusion returned to her face.  She handed me back the one and said, "Why give me this?  Is too much."  Trying hard not to chuckle out loud, I responded, "That's Ok.  Just keep what I gave you, and give me back a five dollar bill and a penny."  Again, confused, she entered the amount and pushed the total button, which of course showed that she owed me $5.01 in change.  The smile returned, and she happily handed it back, patted the box of bubble gum cigars, and warned me to be careful or I would spill my coffee.    The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful.  Josiah had his bath and his first blood test stick, but mostly he slept and ate.  And that's just what he was supposed to do.  Ain't life grand when you're four hours old?   Romans 6:4 says, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."   Father, thank you for the new life we saw today in Josiah.  What a great picture.  New life … In Christ.  That's pretty grand, too.  Amen.