It's John's birthday today. He is 12 years old.

I did not forget about this date, but still it was not until yesterday afternoon when John told me he would like to celebrate it at 爭鮮火鍋 than it became real to me.
Couldn't sleep at the turn of the day and memories & thoughts came rolling in my mind.  So I guess I'll just jot them down in the blog.
While I was pregnant, I had the maternity check-up at 新樓吳東璧醫師 in Tainan.  He was a popular doctor and the regular check-ups turned out to be very time-consuming.
School ended in late June and I drove to Taipei with the trunk full since I was expecting to stay for a couple of months.  The baby was expected to come in early August and the maternity leave lasted till early Oct.
If I am not mistaken, it was the longest time I stayed in Taipei with my husband.  He lives in Taipei but I live and work in Tainan for the past 20 more years.  I didn't usually stayed longer than over the weekend or a week or so during the summer or winter break.
First thing I needed to do when I went to Taipei for the summer break in 1999 was to find a hospital and a doctor who could help deliver the baby.  I had no ideas which hospital to go to.  First I went to 新光Hospital in Shihlin District, which is closer to where we lived in Guandu.  But the doctor was even busier than the one I had in Tainan.  Then my husband wanted me to go to Taiwan Univ. Hospital, which was THE hospital he has always believed the only one that's worth visiting and the one where the other three sons of his were delivered.  At about 2 or 3 weeks before August, I had my first appointment with the doctor of Taiwan Univ. Hospital.  I was afraid that I would be turned down for it was so close to the birth date, but was fortunate not to be.  I gave birth to John on the exact day of my third visit, August 3rd.
It was also the date when my husband and I needed to go to 合作金庫西門分行對保(我名義的房子貸款NT$700,000). We planned to go to the bank to finish up this important business then went for my appointment in the hospital.
但是那天清晨羊水就破了  但是我們沒有立刻去醫院  as we were told to.  We waited till around 9 and  first went to the bank, for my husband needed the money.   After the business at the bank was done then he rushed me to the hospital and reached there at 10 something.  I told the nurse at the out-patient that  清晨羊水就破了 and she was panic to transfer me to the delivery place.
I didn't suffer long to give birth to the baby.  It came out not long after noon.  He was only 2850 grams and was very skinny.  I stayed in the hospital for 3 days but due to serious 黃疸 the baby stayed there for 4 more days.  While I stayed in the hospital, I learned and worked very hard to bread feed the baby.  It did not work out very smoothly in the beginning and my husband wanted me to give up.  I wanted to keep trying but he did not entertain the thought at all.  He even accused me of murdering the baby, which hurt my feelings hard and the hurt has haunted me.  I insisted and it worked out somehow.
I was not a happy mother for I insisted bread -feeding my baby and I was all by myself taking care of the baby.  My mom came to Taipei to cook me one meal and came back to Tainan.  My mother-in-law passed away a couple of years before.  My husband has 3 other sons--the oldest one was married and was expecting to have his first child 6 weeks later, the second oldest one was serving in the Navy and the youngest one was in the high school.
I was contented to have the baby, however, since I was 39 already and had been hoping so eagerly to have a baby of my own.  I love the baby very much.
August was the hottest season of the year so the baby & I stayed in the air-coned room most of the time.
On September 21st that year (1999), the biggest earthquake in history occurred at the turn of the day.  I was awake at that moment.  The street lamp went off and I was wondering why than the whole room shook so bad.  I held the baby in my arms and rushed downstairs to stay outside of the house for the night.
We came down to Tainan around the end of September for I needed to get back to work in early Oct.  Smaller earthquakes occurred once in a while during that time and I remembered I needed to hold the baby and rush out at times in Tainan, too.
John was a skinny baby when he was born.  But in a few months, he grew up to be a chubby baby.  He was a cool baby, crying a lot and smiling so little.
12 years later, I am so glad to see that he has grown up to be a heavy big boy ( or a fat young man) who smiles so much  and cries so little.  He loves to smile at me and remind me to smile at him, too.
Thank God for leading John and I through the valleys and deserts all the way.  HE has done great and magic things in our lives and we look up to him to further lead us on.