Staying with Reva

Reflection of an Event the effected you.

By Tiffany Rowland Due June 16, 2011

"Staying with Reva"

"Jordan, you know mommy loves you so much. When you were born, I didn't want the nurses to take you away. You slept with me the whole time." I said.

"Look Mommy; I was a little baby." My son Jordan said.

"Yes, Jordan that's you. Look how big his legs were, Daddy."

"I know, my big boy now, time go so fast, I can't believe he's four now." My fiancé said.

As we were looking at my son's baby scrap book; I thought of myself when I was younger; in my mother's bed; helping my mom feed my little sister Reva.

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"Go get the door! Mommies home, with Reva." I said to my younger sister Trina.

When my mother entered the house my face lit up like a bursting fire work. I was so excited to see my new baby sister; my sister was finally coming home.

"Where's Reva?" I said.

"She's coming Tiff. Your grandmother is bringing her in, remember when I talked to you girls on the phone about Reva's cleft lip." my Mom said.

"Yes, Mommy." I said with a scared look upon my face.

"Well, Reva still has it. The doctors' are going to wait until Reva is a year old before they operate, to close her palate up."

Just then my grandmother opened the door with Reva. The sun was shinning through the door as they walked in; the sun beaming on Reva's pink blanket. I saw a glimpse of her beautiful; golden; straight hair.

"Here Donna, take Reva." My grandmother said.

When my grandmother gave Reva to my mother; Reva's big gray eyes were looking at me, then I saw her scar.

"I want to hold her Mommy." I said.

"Hold on Tiff, you and your sister wash your hands. She has a split in the roof of the mouth and this leaves a hole between the nose and the mouth. I 'm going to need you girls to help me take care of her, so we have to be very clean."

My sister and I ran to the bathroom like two horses in a Kentucky Derby race.

"Are you scared Trina?" I asked my sister as we both stuck our hands in the bathroom sink.

"No, she is my baby."

"Nope, Trina, she's mine! I'm going to hold her first." I said as I raced out the bathroom.

"Mommy, can I hold her now?" I said.

"Ok, Tiffany and Katrina we have to make sure we keep her mouth clean by using these two syringes, one syringe is for her feeding and the other, for her mucus.

"For her mucus." I said to my mother.

"Yes, her mucus, because of her opening; in her nose and mouth; her mucus will sometimes be in her mouth, if her nose is running. Here Tiffany, you can hold Reva now: be careful."

Her upper lip was open. It looked as if someone had sliced her lip with a steak knife wide open. I felt very sad for my little sister. Why did this have to happen to her?

While holding her I just kept looking at her beautiful Gerber baby round face. You can clearly see that Reva was interracial. My mom separated from her Irish & German boyfriend. A couple weeks later; She found out she was pregnant. When my mom told her ex boyfriend about her pregnancy he knew that Reva had developed this cleft lip from his genes. His first born daughter was born with the same condition.

We loved helping my mom take care of Reva. Some day's it would take some time to feed her because she couldn't drink out of a baby's usual drinking bottle. We had to feed her with a dropper that looks much like the one a pharmacy will give you to give a baby medicine. So, we fed her drops at a time. It was weird at first seeing her lips contract