Home Delivery by ConTextos Chicago

Dion D. Green

Home Delivery

Until the lion learns to write his own story, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter - African Proverb The ConTextos Authors Circle was developed in collaboration with young people who are at risk of, victims of or perpetrators of violence in El Salvador. In 2017, this innovative program expanded into Chicago to create tangible, high-quality opportunities that nourish the minds, expand the voices and share the personal truths of individuals who have long been underserved and underestimated. Through the process of drafting, revising and publishing memoirs, participants develop self-reflection, critical thinking, camaraderie and positive selfprojection to author new life narratives. Since January 2017, ConTextos has collaborated with the Cook County Sheriff's Office to implement Authors Circle in Division X of Cook County Department of Corrections as part of a vision for reform that recognizes the value of mental health, rehabilitation and reflection. These powerful memoirs complicate the narrative about violence and peace-building, and help author a hopeful future for these men, their families, and our collective communities. While each memoir's text is solely the work of the Author, the images used to create this book's illustrations have been sourced from various print publications. Authors curate these images and then, using only their hands, manipulate the images through tearing, folding, layering, and careful positioning. By applying these collage techniques, Authors transform their written memoirs into fully illustrated books. In collaboration with

Home Delivery Dion D. Green

Miracles! I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say I myself believe in miracles. Well, I believe in God and I have faith in my high power. But all my life I never witnessed a miracle happen. I always prayed to God because I was brought up in a Christian Church until I got older and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to go no more. But I never first hand seen a miracle until this happened in my life.

So precious and so beautiful, yet you not even here yet. You are still a fetus in your mother’s stomach, LOL. I would rub my soon to be wife’s belly everyday, waiting on you to arrive. I was so anxious for you to be here, but your arrival date was still a few months away. May 2 to be exact. KeKe, my wife, used to play the lazy and tired role all the time just so I can cook for her and my two other kids, but I didn’t mind cause my wife was pregnant. She needed me. So, that went on for my wife’s whole pregnancy. Me making sure she eats, my unborn eats, and my two other kids eat. Well, at least breakfast and dinner. She was responsible for lunch cause I had to work.

I will never forget that night, April 29, 2019. Me and my wife and our son just got done eating dinner. I decided to play Grand Theft Auto online for a lil while before going to bed. I played for like a couple of hours, then went straight to sleep. Next thing I knew, I was being woke out my sleep by my wife a with loud scream, “Diooonnnn!” I was out cold until that moment, cold all in my eyes as I’m trying to see. I wiped them clean, then asked, “Bay, what the fuck! You ok!?” But I immediately noticed she was not. She had on her pink Lacoste robe with it open, both hands on her stomach, crouched over a little bit, walking towards the bathroom.

I instantly got up and came to her aid. Keke kept saying, “She coming.She coming.” I was thinking to myself- “What the hell am I supposed to do?”- I was clueless on my next step, but I start looking for my phone to call the ambulance and she said, “Brandy called the ambulance already. She should be on her way back downstairs.”

Brandy is our landlord. She stayed upstairs from us. She rented us the basement apartment. I told my wife to let me take her over to the bed and she said, “I’m not going to be able to make it. She’s coming now.” As I went to grab her, she was slowly falling down to the floor, so I helped her to the floor.

As soon as Keke was on the floor, I heard Brandy running down the stairs yelling, “Ambulance taking all damn day.” I’m in the bathroom with my wife. She’s laying on her back. My daughter’s head is protruding out, and Brandy comes in the bathroom and says as soon she sees Keke, “OMG Dion, we are going to have to deliver this baby ourselves!” I couldn't believe Brandy just said that because I didn’t know the first thing about delivering a baby. I didn’t know nothing to be honest, but she took charge of the whole situation very fast. Brandy sent my 2 year old son upstairs. I didn’t even notice him behind us in the doorway just looking scared. I couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking.

As soon as Brandy sent him upstairs, she instructed me to hold Keke’s legs open and told her, “Push Keta. We have to push baby, hold her legs, Dion. We almost there.” Once again I felt clueless not knowing what to do, but what I was told to do by Brandy. Next thing I know, Brandy said, “We need something to wrap the baby in when she comes out,” so I grab my baby new receiving blankets and handed it to Brandy.

My wife. I noticed she was, to me, not in that much pain. Just ready to give birth to our beautiful little girl. An all natural birth at that: no epidural shot. Nothing. Well, we didn’t have no Doctor or nothing, LOL. Just Brandy.

“Push,” Brandy said, for the last time as I held Keta legs. Next thing I see is Brandy pulling my baby out. I released Keta’s legs and took the receiving blanket I gave Brandy off her shoulder and handed it to her to wrap my baby in. I was in shock. We just delivered a whole baby. None of us have any medical background. Well, I know I don’t. But at that moment, you couldn’t tell me I wasn’t a Doctor's assistant. Mr. Green assisting a well known Doctor, Ms. Brandy. But before the joy and excitement can even settle in, Brandy says out of nowhere, “She’s not breathing.” OMG! I instantly look at my newborn’s face: eyes closed, pale body, face a little blue.

She wasn’t breathing. I panicked and you could see the worry in my face, but Brandy started rocking her back and forth and touching her little chest. I asked the Lord not to let this happen this way. As I touched my daughter's hand for the first time, my heart was racing. I swear everybody in the house probably heard my heart beating.

But a few seconds passed that felt like days. And finally D’ajah opened her eyes for the first time. Words couldn’t even explain the joy I felt when that happened. All three of us was overwhelmed with emotions. Ten toes, ten fingers, eyes wide open, legs moving a little, absolutely no crying, and still attached to her Mother. D’ajah Angel Green. Eyes bright as the moon, looking like she was ready for a Huggies commercial. Yes, my baby was that gorgeous already. Within a blink of an eye, looking into my daughter’s eyes, I felt all the sorrow and pain just leave my body to be replaced with love and happiness.

Finally the dang ole ambulance has arrived. They came in, like 8 of them. As soon as they saw Brandy holding my daughter, umbilical cord still attached to my wife, the EMT’s where like, “She’s here. Oh, God.” I guess they didn’t expect the baby to be born just yet, but they took forever to get there. The first lady moved in the tight bathroom and Brandy handed her over to her. She instantly took the receiving blanket off my baby and wrapped her in some like Reynolds wrap aluminum foil. Why? I don’t know, but they did. Then the other EMT handed the first lady some utensils and she cut the umbilical cord. They put my wife on a stretcher and took her to the ambulance truck. They put my daughter in another ambulance truck and I decided to ride to the hospital with my baby. The ride to the hospital felt good. I was making a live video on Facebook. The main EMT kept telling me, “You can’t record back here.” “Yea, whatever, tho,” I thought to myself as I kept recording.

These moments were priceless to me, and I wanted to relive them over and over. My Baby- how much joy and love I felt when she opened her eyes for the first time. I couldn’t help myself but to try and show the world, well, my Facebook world, the new love of my life. But for some reason, after another 2 or 3 minutes, I ended my live video and enjoyed my first ride with my daughter. That was short lived because the EMT in the back with me kept asking me questions right after I stopped recording. What time was she born? What’s her name? Grey eyes! Who in your family has grey eyes? I answered everyone as a proud father would. I put a little bit too much on it with the grey eyes question, though. I told him she got everything from me, especially them grey eyes. Mine change color. He looked puzzled for a second then said, “Of course they do, sir.” He laughed and I did as well, then told the truth. She got that from her Mother’s side of the family. Then he said, “Ok, now let’s check and make sure your beautiful little girl’s organs are working properly.” I knew the Doctor wanted to hear the babies cry to make sure they lungs and stuff are functioning right and getting enough oxygen among other stuff. And at that very moment -

I thought, “This gone be my baby’s first time crying,” cause as I called it, she was born asleep and we woke her up. So then the EMT gently popped her on her foot to make her cry. She cried briefly, then stopped. The EMT said, “Come on, baby, you gone have to do better than that,” and he repeated the process. This time he got an all out cry for like 2 minutes. “Ok, Ok,” he said. “I’m sorry, little precious, just checking, making sure you are all good.” As he told me, “She seems pretty healthy to me but we still have to run tests on her at the hospital.” I knew that already. A few minutes later, we were pulling up to the hospital around 1 something in the morning. My wife made it there first as I walked in through the ER doors.

I saw her in the first room off to the left with a few nurses around her. We made brief eye contact. I smiled at her as I followed the EMTs who had my daughter. We went into the next room and they said they needed to put her in this like incubator thing to stay warm or something. As they were getting that ready, I overheard the nurses saying, “The Mother needs to go upstairs for surgery.” I’m like, “Why? What’s wrong?” But the nurses said to me, “She had a baby at home, we have to make sure everything is ok with her, plus we have to stitch her up as well.” Which makes sense, but I was a little nervous about it when I overheard them speaking about my wife. They pushed her out in the hallway from her room, and I walked next to her bed.

“Hey, baby,” I said. She looked at me with those bright eyes, glossy as ever, and said, “I’m tired.” I say, “I bet you are,” and laughed. They took my wife upstairs and they said my daughter is going up next. I forgot what part upstairs my baby was going to, but when I was able to see her, she was hooked up to a couple wires and an IV. She was in the nursery doing good. I took my phone out and took a couple of pictures, then I talked to the nurse lady who was in charge of watching over my daughter. She asked, “Are you the father?” I said, “Yes ma’am, I am.”

She says, “Awww, well she’s a pretty gorgeous baby you have here. We are just checking now to make sure all her organs are working right making sure she’s getting enough oxygen flow and stuff like that.” I said, “Ok,” then she told me the directions to go where my wife was at on the next floor. I stayed with my daughter a few more moments, then left to see her Mother. As I was going on the elevator, I looked at my phone to see the time, but I noticed I had 7 missed calls and some unread text messages.

I guess I was busy with my baby girl already and this was just the first day. But it was 2:50 am now as I was getting off the elevator. I walked through the first set of double doors to the right as instructed, then approached the service desk. “Hi, I’m here to see Ms. Chandler.” I said. The small Korean lady said, “Ms. Chandler, Ms. Chandler. Hold on one second, please.” She picked up the phone, dialed a number and asked if is Ms.Chandler all done. Then she said “Ok,” looked at my visitor name pass and said, “Ok, Mr.Green is on his way,” then hung up the phone.

She directed me through another set of double doors, and said, “The third door on your right. Can’t miss it - by the water fountain.” I said, “Ok, thank you.” She said, “You welcome.” As I walked away, I felt my phone vibrate. It was a Facebook notification“Congratulations on the new addition!” I couldn’t do nothing, but smiled and walked through the double doors. I immediately saw the water fountain, and knew instantly where I was supposed to be. As I got close to the doorway, I saw the Doctor and the nurse in the room. The Doctor was talking to my wife, the nurse had more gauze and bandage paper for my wife. The Doctor introduces himself to me but I forgot his name, then said, “She will be moving rooms shortly,” and left.

I looked around the room and saw my wife’s clothes in a bag on a chair. She was dressed in a hospital gown laying on the bed looking tired as ever. I said, “Hey, bay, you ok?” “A little bit, I’m so tired.” She said. “I bet, I am too, I’m glad you are all right, tho. I was just down on the other floor checking on D’ajah.” I took a couple of pictures and showed her them; she smiled. I gently rubbed her stomach, then she said I have to get the baby bag that she made for D’ajah to come home with because we left it at home. I said, “Dang, we sure did, rushing out the house.” She told me to take Mari, our son, to her grandmother’s house in the morning before leaving to come back to the hospital. I said, “Ok,” gave her a kiss and told her to get some rest. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning after dropping Mari off.” She said Ok. I told her I love her, and left out the room.

On my way back to the main lobby downstairs on the first floor, I order my Lyft. It said 6 minutes arrival time. As I was on the elevator, I could not stop thinking about my baby. It was crazy. I wanted to take her back with me right then and there but I knew I couldn’t. But I knew one thing: she was ok, and that’s all that mattered to me at that moment. As I was waiting in the lobby I decided to step outside and smoke a square as I waited on my Lyft, which now said 3 minutes. All I could think about was- “I just delivered a baby. My daughter is here now, a beautiful baby girl. I cannot just be a part time Dad like I have been in the past to my other child; I have to be a father.”

Then my Lyft pulled up, an all black sedan, an older white male driving. He said my name and I hopped in. It was silent the whole ride back. So many thoughts going through my head. I couldn’t have had a conversation if I chose to. Then we pulled up to my destination. I told the Driver to have a nice day and got out the car. As I walked to the door, I rated the Driver a 5 star and tipped him a couple extra dollars. As I went to open the back door, Brandy was still up. I guess she heard me coming, so she came to her back door and asked, “How’s everything?” and I told her, “Fine.” I explained what was going on with the baby and Keta and she said, “Ok, that’s good.” I was about to bring Mari back downstairs, but he was sleep she said, so I just left him up there and told her I’d get him in the morning. I went into our apartment downstairs and couldn’t help but see the mess we, well the EMTs, had made, but then I just left it like that. A whole bunch of gauze pads, bandage packages everywhere, some empty, some not, my wife’s Lacoste robe still in the bathroom on the floor. Man, I just thought, as I cleaned up our apartment. This will be a day that I will never forget. A new life and a new beginning is all I could think about as I layed in the bed that early morning. Even tho this is not the first child I have, this one is very, very different from the other child I have, because I was locked up in jail during the birth of my first child, for which I was devastated.

I didn’t go through half the stuff I went through with my new baby. I couldn’t let my little angel down with not being there through every part of life. I knew I failed my first child horribly, and I vowed that very moment to do any and every thing I could not to do that again. I loved D’ajah with all my heart, and I was in love with her mother even more now. It’s crazy, but me just being in this situation I was in made me realize Life is precious. Life is beautiful and I’m gonna do everything in my power to make my presence known in my child’s life from this very first day, which is today.

Many thoughts ran through my head as I was laying there, thinking about my newborn. I wanted the best for her and I wasn’t going to settle for nothing less. I was gone be the first man she fell in love with, with those pretty greyish blue eyes of hers. Well shid, I hope I’m the only man, but I will settle for being the first, as of now. She will have everything she needs plus some. Ima put her in the best schools so my baby can be smart. Ima read to her everyday, put her in her baby bathtub, wash her up, and sing her children’s lullaby songs every night.

Man, all I could think about was my “miracle child.” How I need to change for the betterment of us as a family. I always dreamed of me getting married and having a few kids, maybe 3 or 4, and being happy all together. My kids all running around the house, playing hide and go seek, just being kids. Me coming home to a full house. My wife Keta has on her “Kiss the Cook” apron in the kitchen, cooking us all dinner. All my kids embrace me as soon as I walk through the door. “Hey, daddy! Daddy, look!” One child huggin’ my leg and another grabbing me by the hand, pulling me to see something. It’s D’ajah, tho, pulling me to see her painting she drew and put on the refrigerator. “Daddy, you see it?” I say, “Yes.” She says “It’s mommy, you - my daddy, me, Mari and Layla.” As soon as I say “It’s so beautiful,” to my miracle child, I was awakened by my phone going off. I didn’t even know I fell asleep and at that very moment, I knew everything I do from now on would reflect me as a man.

Moving forward, I need to make smart decisions in life and be a man, a better father, a better son and a better brother. I owe it to the people around me, my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my family. I let so many people down time and time again, with going back and forth to jail. I vowed to myself this new life is my new beginning. Change has arrived and I am ready to make this transformation with you, Niketa Jamil Chandler. I know I made a lot of mistakes in the past, but Niketa - you have changed me in so many ways. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thank you enough. You gave me the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most beautiful baby girl and I want us to spend the rest of our life together raising her. So, would you do me the honor of being my wife? I know I been calling you my wife, wifey and stuff like that. But I want this to be real and give my queen the life she deserves. But Ima keep you all posted on if she says yes in my next book: Miracle Child Part 2.0.

I dedicate this book to my little angel. You opened my eyes to a whole new world filled with love and joy. Unconditional love, at that. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m blessed to say I am your father and I plan on being in your life every step of the way, from the very first cut or bruise on your leg, to your very first day at school. Ima be there especially when you decide to start talking to nappy headed lil boys. Ima definitely be there for your graduation, prom and your wedding. Your father will always be by your side, no matter what. I love you, Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ajah because you are my miracle sent from the heavens above. My Miracle Child!

Dion D. Green And I thank you Chicago for that,

I am from Chicago

But I think it’s time for a change for the betterment of me

The Home of the White Sox The 2016 World Series Champs, the Cubs The 1985 Super Bowl Shuffle Bears

With this new chapter in my life I am embarking on

To the amazing Michael Jordan

I rather not only Be from Chicago,

6 Rings! Chicago Bulls

I rather be from a small city

I am from Chicago,

Somewhere me and my wife pick to raise our growing family

A place where I’ve grown to Love and Hate, Chiraq, as most people call it Chicago, my Home City, without You I don’t think there will Be no me.

So with that being said, I love where I am from But I’ma Love where I’m going even more!