Proud papas

We made an NIN delivery today to Parkland. I am dead on my feet. Did NIN from 9am until 7:30 and pretty much everything we do at Dottie's to get ready for a monthly meeting has to be done standing. We do fun lunches at local eateries and stop every hour or two to sit down for a minute or two, but most of what we do at these interim work meetings are things that require standing. It's amazing how standing all day can really wipe you out.

Delivering the goods to Parkland is work, no doubt about it. Our donation area has bins and cabinets for us to put our clothing and quilts and blankets and all the assorted things we make. Other organizations also send things in to the Parkland nurseries....just not in the quantity we do. These things are put into the donation area by other people. I'm guessing someone from the volunteer office downstairs. Or maybe by whoever delivers the other goods. In any case, when we show up with a delivery, the place is usually a mess. Hats in the booties, clothing sets in the blankets, positioning bumpers in the quilts. We always have to sort it all out, bag up the things that really belong in NNICU or social services, and then get it all organized so the nurses and aides and social workers can find what they need to give away. Sometimes, lilke today, we have the room to ourselves. Other days we work with the lights off, being as quiet as humanly possible, because the room is also used by nurses to administer hearing tests and monitor newborns.

As we leave the newborn nursery to drop things off at NNICU or social services, we always stop to see the just-borns. These are the babies born within the last few minutes and we pass by the viewing window on our way out. Today there was a man standing back a few feet on a cell phone and although he was speaking Spanish, I could tell from the excitement in his voice that he must be a new daddy. Seeing the babies is always a pleasure, but seeing the proud daddies beaming from ear to ear, admiring their newly arrived handiwork through the window, is always a special treat. I asked him which one was his, and he pointed to the boy on the far right. The one who was none too happy about just having been yanked from his warm, soft abode and plopped, naked, in front of a window. The proud papa was like others we have seen, beaming from ear to ear. We oohed and aahed and told him what a beautiful boy he had...and what a fiesty one, LOL! I'll never forget the time we asked a beaming papa which one was his and he pointed to both of them, just about ready to burst out of his skin with pride and joy.

Sometimes we see other family members there admiring the just-borns, but there is nothing that beats the looks on the faces of the proud papas.