life and birth / jokes

So it seems I am an Aunt like I have always wanted (Patrick the pressure's a off a little bit).

My Egyptian sister gave birth to a tiny baby girl by c-section two days ago. After all the crap she has gone through with an abusive husband attempting to make her miscarry and refusing any financial assistance, all the swollen feet and hands, the high blood pressure and hot pulsing pain in her chest for months. After two days in the hospital and a very scary surgery above their financial means, there is this baby! Its amazing!

I have never seen this quite so close. I mean I heard about "the miracle of life" / watched the video in science class, but I have been watching this woman get bigger and bigger, bearing immense suffering and worry over this fetus inside her. I saw the ultrasound pictures, I bought baby clothes, I debated baby names. Now this thing that has been a part of Gigi is now its own person, out in the world. And the amazing thing is, that this family can grieve over Gigi's pain and sickness and worry over this tiny baby, and yet still laugh over the fact that the baby's clothes are too big, welcome us in to look at this tiny little alien-like thing, and life goes on as usual. It seems that in my life so far I've been isolated from these nitty-gritty details of life.

My sister is so tired and in so much pain, the suffering of course is immense, but then the joy and relief of this new life is even more immense. I mean I have always thought that fathers with their daughters are adorable, but seeing this baby with her grandfather is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. His gigantic smile and ability to hold this baby loosely but carefully, seemingly the happiest man in the world. All of the money and the pain and the suffering and the worry and the time was worth it. Now the connection between new life and suffering seems so clear.

-------------------------------------------------

ON another note:

I heard some excellent jokes yesterday. They were half in English, half in Arabic and with excellent facial expressions and gestures that are irreplaceable, but nevertheless I think I need to share them as much as I can.

Ok so President Mubarek (of Egypt), Sheik Tantawi (of Al-Azhar University, the foremost Muslim leader in Egypt) and Baba Shenouda (the foremost Christian leader in Egypt) are all in a plane together. Mubarek finds one Egyptian pound under his foot. He picks it up and thinks, hmm, what can I do with this? So he asks Sheik Tantawi, "Oh Tantawi, I found this pound, what should I do with it?" Tantawi says, "you should get two half pounds change and throw them out of the airplane window so you can make two people happy." Mubarek thinks to himself, oh this is an excellent idea. Then he goes to Baba Shanouda and asks, "O Baba, what should I do with this pound?" Baba Shanouda says, "get four quarter pounds and then throw them out of the plain, you will make four people happy." The President thinks to himself, O this is an even better idea. Then he turns to the flight attendant and asks, "I have this one pound, how can I make the most people happy?" and the flight attendant says, "O President, you should jump out of the plane and make 70 million people happy." hahahahaa!

And another:

All of the Egyptian people are gathered on Muqattum mountain (overlooking Cairo). Somehow President Nasser (who is dead), President Sadat (who is dead) and President Mubarek (the current president) are all there. President Nasser asks everyone who loves him to jump off the cliff. About half of the Egyptian people gathered there jump. Then President Sadat asks all the people who love him to jump, about half of the remaining people jump. Then President Mubarek asks all the people who love him to jump, and one person jumps (weeeeeeeeeeee splat). President Mubarek walks down the mountain and finds this man. He says, "what is your name, I want to give you everything because you are the one person who loves me." The man answers, "All I want is to know who pushed me" hahahahaahahahahaaaa!!!!

OK anyway, I think those are great, and I will spare you from the more vulgar one involving President Bush and the King of Saudi Arabia... haha