Happy birthday Noah John Saliba, for the first time ever.

He was born on Tuesday, January 31, 2006. The newborn son of Jad and Sandra.

We've been talking about him for nine months and he made us wait an extra ten days. Even with that extra anticipation, we're all kind of empty-mouthed. All we can do is wait for our turn to hold him!

We weren't there the night he came because Sam was in labour all through the night and there was nothing we could do if we had gone, the hospital wouldn't let us in at all, so what birth was like is a mystery to me. But when we came to visit them yesterday through the tooth-paste-green hallways that perpetually smell like cleaning chemicals, Sam and Jad had a baby boy who was theirs.

He's tiny, seven pounds, an average baby weight I think. When I hold him I have to gather my arms closely because he's so small; my arm supports his entire body length, and his precious head rests in my palm. He is a soft bundle of velvety pyjamas with little pink hands and feet. His light brown hair sticks up at the back of his head and his brow is drawn together in a focused expression, as if he has something on his mind; as if he has anything on his mind. I haven't seen his eyes yet because he was sleeping both times I saw him, but they're blue.

He is the essence of calm, so content and limp as he's passed from one pair of hands to another pair to another pair, very much asleep.

He doesn't know who we are, or what he is, or what those tiny arms he flings around are yet, but one day he will. He hasn't decided yet if he likes those yellow pyjamas with bears that he wears. But one day he will see pictures of himself as a baby in those pyjamas. He'll go to school, and one day he'll do something he loves, maybe a sport or an instrument? Who knows! He'll learn to ride a bike and he'll find out if he can cook or not. He'll buy a car, and pay insurance, he'll fall in love with a girl...right now its difficult to imagine Noah as anything else but a baby. And I don't want to think of him as anything else but a baby! Stay a baby Noah! (*wishful auntie thought*)

We've been waiting for him for what seems like a long time, but now that he's here we're wondering, who is this? This new life, this clean, pure, creature, a picture of God's goodness. I think I will always wonder at how children are born, still when I'm near the end of life and sex is no longer the hot topic it is to teenagers, because birth is so much more than something physical (although after I've been in labour I might be more focused on that part...:P no, actually). Noah has a soul, and he's not just a product of a biological equation that nature has by chance formulated - he is a work of art, every detail planned and made purposefully by His heavenly Father. Although I am bias towards God's love as a Christian, I know it is still wonderful to people who don't know God - this creation of new life. It's beautiful; Noah is beautiful. He is a gift of God, and a child of God. And God already knows him, "I knew you before you were born, I knit you together when you were in your mother's womb." There is a reason for everything about him already, even though he's just a day old. There's a reason he is Sam and Jad's first child, and a reason he was born ten days late, and a reason his tiny nose curves down then up (sometimes it looks up-then-down) the way it does. He is so new, so fresh, so untouched, and I want to keep him that way forever.

O Lie Still

O sweet baby, o lie still,
The sun is under the window sill.
You wake today for the first time,
So natural, common, but oh sublime.

O sweet baby, as you lie
So still and fragile, but magnified
Is the light of life in your pink cheeks,
Pronounced so clear before you speak.

O lie still, your fingers stretch,
Your lungs expand under caress
Of mother's touch and father's care,
And wrapped in tender trusting prayer.

O lie still, o baby sweet,
Just as you are, so mild and meek.
One day you'll learn, and know, and smile,
So just lay down a little while.

O lie still, and close your eyes,
Ride dreams of foamy unknown tides,
Don't think, just sleep, sweet baby cry,
But love will be your lullaby.

It is SO hard to find good poetry on babies on the internet. I searched for a while but gave up hope, its all pathetic, cliche, unoriginal junk, "you're so cute and chubby like a cherub!"..."obey mother and always be sweet, eat your food, not just the meat!"...mmhm. So this one is mine, for Noah, with love from your auntie!