My two boys and I were waiting in line to get a pizza one day when a lady asked if I liked being the nanny. Courtesy of Ebony Lumpkin Photo by Dora Breauxīut there will always be people who are negative and rude. And truthfully Matthew loves the attention. Most of them ‘just can’t help themselves’. It used to bother me, because who just walks up and randomly touches someone’s child? But I’ve gotten to where I politely ask them not to.
I don’t usually mind, except when I’m in a hurry or I get stopped going down every aisle of the grocery store. Their friends, sisters, uncles, cousins, brother had red hair. Usually I hear all about the redheaded family tree from every stranger I meet. People are always shocked by his hair, especially when we are together. Or if they do, the next assumption is, ‘Oh he must get his red hair from his father.’ Actually both parents have to carry the MC1R gene for the child to have it. That I was his mom and not the aunt, Godmother, or the nanny. I can’t count how many times I had to explain that he wasn’t adopted, wasn’t my stepson, and wasn’t albino. Nurses and doctors from all over the OB floor came to see him. Once they put him in my arms, I’d forgotten all about the hair color until someone brought it up. Partly because he was absolutely stunning, but mostly because a white red-headed baby just came out of an African American woman.
I know that Naval Medical Center Portsmouth is a teaching hospital, but before I could go into a full-blown panic the nurse continued, ‘he has RED HAIR!’ I paused for a solid 10 seconds before I responded, ‘no, just wash him a few times.’ The nurse washed him 3 times before she came back over and said, ‘No mama, you’ve got a little ginger.’ Courtesy of Ebony LumpkinĮveryone was in awe of him. The moment he was born the first thing I heard was, ‘Oh my God.’ ‘Oh my god’ is literally the last thing any woman, especially one who just spent 11 hours delivering a baby, wants to hear. As an African American woman, that was the last thing I was expecting! I couldn’t believe it, and neither could the nurses. What we didn’t know, was that hair was RED! Yes, you heard that right.
What else could there be? My sister in law took the ultrasound pictures that showed a perfectly healthy beautiful baby boy. Everything was perfect throughout the entire pregnancy. “I thought being a part of the United States Navy was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me.
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