DON'T JUDGE A PERSON (AN ERKENCI KUS LESSON)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Wonderful New Year's to Everyone!  Please be healthy and happy!  Thank you for reading my version of Erkenci Kus and how I wish Sanem had been treated from the beginning.  Thank you for all of your kind comments.  Please enjoy!

When Ates was seven months old his little twin cousins were born.   Leyla and Emre had a son Altan, and a daughter Ahu, delivered at eight months.  They were beautiful children, and Ates loved his cousins.   Every time Sanem and Can would take him to visit, he always wanted to hug and kiss the babies.

One thing that everyone started noticing was that Ates wanted to cover Ahu ears  with his tiny hands.   He was very gentle and the baby did not seem to mind, but nobody could figure out why Ates did this every time.   After a while, Leyla started noticing that Ahu did not cry very much.   When she and Emre mentioned this to the pediatrician, he ordered a hearing test.  It was discovered that Ahu, had a slight hearing loss in one ear.  If did not improve, she should be able to have a minor surgery in the future to correct the problem.

Now all the family started watching Ates, as he seemed to have realized before anyone.   How could it be, he is just a baby?    He seemed to just love and hug everyone, except Huma.   Which was still a puzzle to all of the family.

Ates started talking early, calling for his Baba and Anne at a young age.  What was so funny was he called Nihat, what sounded like Babalicious!   It was the cutest thing and he called Mevkibe, Annie.  Of course as the oldest grandchild he led the way in what the other grands called them.

When he was almost a year old, he was spending the day with Nihat and Mevkibe.   Sanem and Can were at work, when Sanem's Anne phoned to say they couldn't get Ates to stop crying.  This was very unusual, as Ates was a pretty laid back little boy.

Can and Sanem left work immediately, to go see what was wrong.  When they got to the Malhalla and ran into the house, they could hear Ates crying from outside.

When they got to the living room, Nihat was sitting on the couch.    Ates was lying across his lap crying his little heart out.   When Sanem tried to pick him up, he resisted and kept holding on and saying, "Babalicious."

Finally Ates, looked up at his parents, crying and saying, "Babalicious sick."

Everyone was shocked, and just looked at each other, not sure what to do.

Finally Sanem said, "Baby, let's take Babalicious to the doctor, and make sure he is okay.  You can go with us, okay?"

Nihat said, "I am really okay, just a little heartburn, which is normal."

Can said, "Baba lets just go have you checked out so Ates, will calm down.   Also, remember what happened with Ahu.  Let's just be safe."

Ates hushed crying and let his Baba carry him to the truck.   It was a silent group that went to the hospital, to have Baba checked out.

When they got to the hospital, Nihat and Mevkibe went into exam room, and just told the doctor that he was having some heartburn.   They weren't sure about telling the medical staff that their little grandson felt like something was wrong.

At first all of the tests came back normal, until a blood count came back showing extremely high white count.    After an abdominal ultrasound, Nihat was rushed to surgery.   He had to have his gallbladder removed.  The doctor told them they "were very smart to follow-up on his heartburn and come in for checkup.   As it is to easy to ignore and have a severe infection, as it worsens."

When Sanem and Can brought Ates into the room, after surgery, he just very gently patted Nihat's cheek and said, "Babalicious better."

None of the family could believe that such a little boy, was so intuitive.  They would definitely not ignore any warnings that Ates gave them in the future.

Sanem and Can also, decided to do some research into what was going on with their little baby boy.

After many months of studying and Ates not doing anything else like with Nihat or Ahu.   Sanem and Can decided that their little boy was maybe an empath, just with immediate family.   They just relaxed and enjoyed their little family.

About this time Sanem received an offer from Harvard University, in USA.   They wanted her to come lecture for six months, using her writings.   After much discussion with Can and their families, she accepted.   Can and Ates were going with her, and they were going to live in Boston Massachusetts, during this time.   On the weekends, they would travel as a family, and Can would take photos.  They were very excited and Can was so proud of Sanem.   She was excited to use her newly learned English.

After about five months in Boston, and their time was almost up, the university ask Sanem to consider staying for a little longer.   They told her, that her environmental lecture was the most popular of any past lecturers ever.   She was missing Turkey, her family and wanted to go home.    Can agreed with her, and they started preparing to go home.

By this time Ates was two years old, and super smart.   About a week before they were to leave, Ates hugged Sanem's tummy and said, "Hello baby sisters."   Sanem and Can just looked at each other, because they were not even thinking that they might be pregnant again.

They went out and bought a pregnancy test, and were both surprised that it was positive.   Sanem had not had any nausea or problems.   Sanem had a check-up before their long flight home, and discovered she was about six weeks pregnant with twins.  The doctor told them it was to soon to know the sex of the babies, and it was safe for her to fly home to Istanbul.

Sanem and Can didn't tell the doctor, but they already knew it was two girls, because Ates told them.   Little Ates, who was growing up to look exactly like his Baba, also had an uncanny sense of things connected to his family.

As Sanem and Can had always had an uncanny sense of things between themselves, they felt like maybe Ates had inherited their trait of 'knowing'.    As they always knew when something was wrong or unusual with one another.   Again they decided to not make a big deal out of his knowing things, and just accept it for what it was, a blessing for their family.

They were all happy to be back in Istanbul, and seeing their family and friends.    Sanem made an appointment with her OB, Dr. Yaman, for about a week after they got home.    He reassured Sanem and Can, that everything was going as it should with the pregnancy.  He did order some extra blood tests, to make sure all lab chemistries were within normal limits.  He suggested that Sanem have appointments every three weeks, since she is pregnant with twins this time.  This way they could keep a close eye on her blood pressure, as well.

Can was very excited about them having twins, but nobody was as excited as Ates.   Before Sanem and Can could tell anyone, Ates was telling everyone that he had two baby sisters.     Sanem had to quickly explain that it was to early to tell yet, but Ates wanted two sisters.    Everyone thought it was cute how he wanted sisters.