Happy Birthday Kiti

Yesterday, August 13th, was Deb's birthday. She arrived in the world at 6:10am Saturday morning, 29 years ago. 8 lbs, 3 oz. 4 hours of labor. Northridge Hospital, Reseda, CA.

As I wrote the above words, the first story about Deb that came into my mind was the first story about Deb. She was switched at birth. True story. Because I was on the phone chatting to my friend who is now my sister in law, the nurses took another new mom from the recovery room and moved her into the room that was assigned to me, BUT they neglected to change the paperwork. So when I was taken to my room, it was actually the room assigned to the other mom. But NO ONE remembered to change room designations on the papers. Soooo...when I asked for my newborn to be brought to me I was given A DIFFERENT BABY. No one checked our bracelet/ankle IDs. Yes, the baby had dark hair, really odd ears (I told Deborah it was ok that her ears looked like nobody else's in the family, we'd just grow her hair long to cover them), but I loved "her" immediately. It was only after I had cuddled her awhile that I unwrapped the blanket to check that she had all her fingers and toes and looked at her ankle ID. It read, MARTINEZ, BOY. Ahem, I knew I'd given birth to a girl, I checked, nope this baby was a boy. Hmmm, my last name isn't Martinez, it's Price... Panic set in. Where is MY BABY? When the nurse answered my call button summons, she said, "What's the matter, Mrs. Martinez?", I answered, "I'M NOT MRS. MARTINEZ, I'M MRS. PRICE! WHERE IS MY BABY?" As you can imagine, panic set in among the nursing staff. MY BABY was eventually found peacefully sleeping in the crib labeled MARTINEZ, BOY, but her ankle ID said PRICE, GIRL. When I was finally reunited with my own baby, I wasn't inclined to give her back to the nursery during the rest of my stay in the hospital. I checked, yup, looked like I remembered my baby looked like in the delivery room, actually looked like my grandma, right sex, right ankle ID. I know that I came home from the hospital with the right baby because Deb looks just like me. When she was 13, someone in a restroom looked at us and commented, "Well, you could never deny that she is yours." Little did she know how welcome those words always are... In fact, we look so much alike that Deb quickly got tired of people saying, "You look like your mom!" and we made the deal that I'd give her a dime every time someone said it. She got rich...

Deb and Mia

Deb looks like me, but she is her father's daughter. I am awed that I could have given birth to someone as smart as Deb. (I knew she'd be beautiful!) My chemist, theologian, rocket scientist daughter who also has incredible musical talent, writing ability and the good taste to love cats.

It was lovely to see you on your birthday yesterday, Deb. May you have many more years of living and loving.