A baby is like a petite gift from heaven. As precious as an oyster’s pearl. As adorable as innocent love. And as delicate as rose’s pedal. It seems paradoxical that something so pure of heart can bring about the most chaotic situations of mankind. But who knew that when this being rests, everyone can find peace and harmony after such a hectic night.
It was July 12th, and what a magnificent day-kind of. The day started with waking up at seven in the morning and not because of summer school, but because I couldn’t sleep. Since I couldn’t sleep I did the daily routine of breakfast, games, TV, more games, lunch, etc. Also, one of my best friends, Gonzalo, came over and we played cards and watched House. It was the episode where the mother saved her newborn baby by sharing her own blood. It was later that night that something had happened; my sister’s water broke.

My sister lives in Houston, but when she went into labor, her husband Eric was here in Dallas for a dentist appointment. She called me and my brother, Hai, and asked for a favor; we were to pick up Eric and somehow get him to Houston as soon as possible. We figured that we would drive him to the bus stop so he could take the bus back to Houston, easy enough, right? Wrong. That task turned out to be one of the hardest and most dangerous we have ever had to do.

It started off with us picking up Eric from his mom’s house in Lewisville, and then we headed towards the bus stop in downtown Dallas. We got near a Denny’s which is pretty far from the bus stop when the car suddenly broke down. My brother said it was probably because he ran out of gas so we decided to ask someone to give us a ride to the nearest gas station. When we stepped out of the car, there was a homeless man that looked like he had a weapon started asking us for money. We told him we didn’t have any change and he replied, “I see money in the tray” and so we gave him the seventy-nine cents we had and he left. After that we went inside the Denny’s and announced our situation and there was a kind guy named Jose that said he would help us. We went to a Texaco and got some gas for the car, and my brother was so thankful that he filled up Jose’s tank of gas as well.

When Jose drove us back to the car, we put in the gas and turned the ignition. Of course the car wouldn’t start because the actual problem was the engine and the gas running out was just another added misfortune. Fortunately, Jose was there and we asked him for one last favor – driving us to the bus stop. He kindly agreed. When we got there, Eric paid for his ticket to get on the bus and right as he was getting aboard, the driver said, “I’m sorry, we’re full.” After all we went through; the bus was full. Feelings of apprehension and anxiety surrounded us. We waited for a few minutes with Eric to figure out what to do. We decided that the best thing to do was for Eric to wait for the next bus alone because we had to figure out how to get home ourselves. While all of this was going on, my sister was already in the hospital waiting for Eric to have the baby because she didn’t want to deliver alone.

Even though we were happy that the baby was going to be born soon, we had to find our way home. Jose kindly lent us his phone because my brother’s phone had already run out of battery and we had no way to communicate with anyone. My brother called home and asked someone if they could drive and after figuring out that no one could come pick us up and that my parents had to work until two in the morning, he asked my oldest brother to call my dad and ask him to drive us home. The smart person that he is, my brother forgot to tell him exactly where we were and only included that we were at a Denny’s with a broken down car. My dad was upset that he was basically driving blind into downtown. My oldest brother went to Yahoo Maps and found the Denny’s and told my dad the directions. With this, my dad drove to find us and about an hour and a half later we were on our way home, leaving the car behind for another day’s problem.

In the mist of all this ominous bad luck, there was a beacon of hope: the anxiety-stricken Eric was finally able to get on the six o’clock bus and leave for his wife. As we finally arrived at our house, we called to inform my sister about the situation. Upon acquiring this dire message, my sister called her male roommates to see if they could pick up Eric when he arrives in Houston. The roommates were a bit iffy in which they did not want to pick him up, but one of their girlfriends said, “She’s in the hospital right? YOU GO PICK HIM UP.” They left and waited for Eric at the bus stop, who was not there at the estimated time of arrival. They called my sister and her frustration and anxiety multiplied tenfold. After being delayed for thirty minutes, the bus carrying Eric finally arrived. After about thirty minutes of preparation, Eric was by his wife’s side. At 2:04 P.M. on July 13, 2010, Selena Ngoc-Chau Velasquez-Tran, also known as BeBe, entered this Earth.

Bebe, from the moment she entered this Earth to today, she has been the pearl of family, petite, precious, adorable, and delicate. And her name Ngoc-Chau suits her best because it means just that, pearl. Now, every time I look into the innocence of her eyes, flashbacks of the mixed blessings her birth brought rush back to me. Whether she is squirming or sleeping, it brings me profound peace each and every time I hold her.