Emebet Mojo looked out the window, watching snow fall on Langley on New Year’s Eve.
Just after dinnertime, the labour pains started but the big soft flakes falling helped the 29-year-old relax in her room in Langley Memorial Hospital.
Her husband, Joab Onyango, wasn’t so relaxed after getting the call that the baby was coming.
“I was actually travelling in the snow,” he said of the worrisome drive to the hospital.
Mojo wasn’t due until Jan. 3 but she figured it would make its entry into the world in the closing hours of 2016.
This baby had other plans. Because she was bigger than Mojo’s previous three children, the new baby would put mom into labour longer than usual and necessitated a Cesarean section delivery.
So at 1:56 a.m. on Jan. 1, a little girl was born to Mojo and her 40-year-old husband making the Aldergrove residents not only proud new parents, but also parents of Langley Memorial Hospital’s New Year’s baby.
The baby weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz.
Mojo, Onyango, and their three children – 10-year-old Caleb, seven-year-old Christian, and Hope, two and a half – had readied for a baby boy. Onyango joked that he thought he saw a little something extra on the ultrasound months ago and Mojo said the pregnancy developed like it did when she had her two boys. They had even picked out a name, suggested by their seven-year-old.
“Christian was at the Bible and said ‘Mom, I like Luke’,” Onyango explained.
So when the baby girl arrived, the family switched gears.
“They were disappointed a little bit,” Mojo said of the kids.
It also meant finding a new name. They chose Jackline Onyango.
But their dad jokes that a second girl evens up the score and they now have to consider having a tie-breaker. Mom’s just happy there’s a gap between the two oldest and the two youngest.
Onyango said family back in Ethiopia was perplexed about the New Year’s baby phenomena, joking that hundreds of babies were born on New Year’s day.
In addition to the title as Langley’s New Year’s baby, Jackline received gifts from groups such as the Langley Memorial Hospital Auxiliary.
Onyango couldn’t say enough kind things about the care they received and the Vanderkerkhove Maternity Centre in Langley Memorial Hospital.
He was also thrilled to be present for the birth of the baby, not something done by men in Ethiopia.
“He was so nervous,” Mojo said.
Onyango figured he’d be there but wouldn’t be right there.
“When the labour starts, I thought I’d just step out [into the hall],” he chuckled.
But once it was determined that C-section would be required, Mojo, the equipment, the staff and Onyango were all swept up into a calvacade that went into the operating room. Someone put a gown and gear on Onyango, and he got a front-row seat for the whole drama.
“He ended up cutting the cord,” Mojo said.
That’s proving to be a special memory for the dad. Mojo said it’s good for men to be present at the birth of their children.
“The men see what it takes to have that baby,” she said.
The family moved to Aldergrove in the autumn. They came to Langley for the opportunities it affords their family. Mojo is taking her masters degree in finance at Trinity Western University because she jokes, “I’ve always loved to count money.”
Onyango is a support worker at the Salvation Army’s Gateway of Hope.
These permanent residents are thrilled that Jackline was born in their adopted country because she’s come at a time when every possibility is open to her in life.
“Whatever she wants to do in life, we will support her,” Mojo said. “She has unlimited opportunity here.”
