We would like you to meet Ramona

Mehrsa had the opportunity to audition for American Idol two nights ago. She kind of stumbled upon it, actually. They happen to be holding auditions in the hospital where she decided to give birth to our new daughter. Doug, a friend from law school, was at the audition too, ready to do a number with his brother - apparently one of those duo types with a heart-felt story that always make it in front of the judges but never do very well.

Unfortunately Mehrsa had two problems. First of all she wasn't really prepared; hadn't planned on auditioning and didn't have a song. No sweat - all those sing-alongs with Les Miserables could surely produce a decent "I Dreamed a Dream" or something like that. The other problem was a little more significant, something Susan Boyle didn't have to deal with - contractions. Contraction after contractions kept breaking her focus, taking her from the zone, disrupting her visualization of looking Simon into the eyes and saying with determination "I have been preparing my whole life for this". Contraction----------Contraction-----Contraction--Contraction. It was time to go, wake up, out of bed, to the birthing center, it is for real this time.

Her sisters were like clockwork, but this girl came on her own time. Her grand entrance to the world seemed at times like a little piece of paper caught in the wind, wandering through the skyscrapers of Manhattan - some times coming and other times going, riding the breezes that snake between the buildings, neither afraid of nor hurried by the simple fact that gravity and nature would eventually win and land her in a puddle, or in a tree, or in the loving arms of tearful and awestruck parents. She was born April 8 at about 7pm, 6 pounds and 4 ounces of beauty that is so real you can smell it.

The labor was extraordinary, and, aided only by a midwife, a nurse and me as cheerleaders, Mehrsa again stepped beyond the bounds of human strength and endurance to breathe life into our little girl with such grace and penetrating beauty so as to give the universe pause. The baby came face up which didn't make things easy, and twisted in her cord which didn't help either, but she is here. She is here. Her name is Ramona, and, with Cyra and Lucia, she makes our set complete. Mehrsa is one of three sisters. I have three sisters, and now as the father of three girls I wholeheartedly wish daughters on everyone I even remotely like.