Fried Noodles!

A few months ago I got to take one of my friends here to get her first ultrasound. It was her fourth pregnancy, she'd just never been able to go before. We got to see her baby moving around and hear the doctor say that everything looked healthy - and she got to know that she was having a little girl! (just what she wanted.)

Lots of my friends have had babies here, but for some reason I've been more excited about this one ever since I found out. After the ultrasound we knew the baby was a girl and she asked me to name her. I wasn't sure what her name was going to be for a while, so we called her "Me-Cha" it means fried noodles and it's not actually a name here at all, but within a short amount of time everyone in the village knew who fried noodles was.

The name Fried Noodles came about because she has one older sister, Srey Nick, and two older brothers. Her 2 brothers have somewhat similar names. I never had trouble remembering Bunloo's name because I knew it meant "light," but I often confused Bunlok's name until I realized it sounded like a stir fried beef dish they make here. It was my secret reminder for a little bit, but when they heard how I remembered his name they told me to just call him Loklak - so I do and he answers to it.

My friend's due date came and went and we were still waiting for Me-Cha to come. It wasn't very convenient of her to keep waiting as the Khmer New Year was coming closer and closer, but she just wasn't ready yet. We thought maybe she was waiting until the last day of Khmer New Year which coincides with my birthday, so we could share the day, but we didn't really know.

We laughed and joked about where she was going to give birth, of how if she was really going to walk to the hospital when she went into labor she might just end up having the baby in the park down the street and I'm going to get a phone call telling me to come visit her there, but it would make for a cheaper doctor's bill.

Then a week ago her little daughter was born. Fifteen minutes later I got a phone call telling me she had come. I went to meet this sweet baby the next morning.

Selah is precious in every way - and perfect with ten fingers and ten toes and so far she's been an easy baby for her mom. And apparently our joke of her being born in the park was almost a reality - because they went to the health center at the last minute and she was born super fast.

In the past week I've gotten to spend some sweet moments with this little girl and her momma. I'm so excited for her life. For how much hope there is for her. She wasn't born in the easiest of circumstances and she will face more than her fair share of obstacles in her life, but I look at her and I see so much promise for her life. I'm excited to see how she changes the world.


After all she's a week old and she's trying to roll over already. She's not planning on wasting any moments of her life. Perfect. Sweet Selah.

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