You Don’t Know What You Got

We all know the saying. We hear it often. We hear it in movies, and our parents use it as a way to teach us kids a life lesson. But I, personally, never thought I could apply the cliché saying: You don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone into my daily life; until I met my newborn baby brother.

When I caught wind of my mother’s pregnancy at the tender age of 16, I immediately resented it. It was the typical teenage scenario between the two of us: Mother marries new man, and is pregnant with another child, and teenage son/daughter pulls away from the family. And as time progressed through her pregnancy, I could feel myself pulling further and further away from her.

“Do this” she would say to me, “Do that, please”

Each time, I would mumble curses under my breath and do as told.

It wasn’t until August 16th, when I realized that this little… entity would prove to be of great importance to our family.

I remember the morning clearly. I remember waking up at 4 am and taking my mother to the hospital where she spent nearly 10 hours in labor. There I stood, watching her push a living human being out of her… or so I thought. I could tell right off the bat that something was wrong. I took one look at the newborn and I was shocked. His body appeared blue, limp, and lifeless. It was the sound of my mother’s crying that made me realize that I needed to accept this newborn into our lives.

I looked at the doctors, who were trying to resuscitate my baby brother. As they kept trying to bring my brother to life, I was beginning to lose hope. The greatest moment of relief came when I heard muffled whining coming from the baby table. My brother was alive! He wasn’t going to go away and there was nothing to change the fact that he was here; that he was now a part of our family. And if we lost him now, it would devastate my mother; I couldn’t bear that pain. I couldn’t bear to see her depressed day after day if she lost that child.

I ran up to my mother, telling her everything would be okay, that the doctors would take care of him. I brought my eyes to the baby (he was beginning to get that healthy pink color now) and thanked God that he was alive.

I lost, and gained a brother that day. It’s really true what they say… You don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone.