"It's A Boy! Activate The Tracking Device"

Last Thursday I was at a metro Atlanta hospital, for the birth of my grandson. This event was very exciting for my entire family, and I have to add that the baby is beautiful!

A few things happened over the course of the two days, however, that weren't as nice as his arrival. One of them was that my daughter spent an entire day and most of an evening, under the care of nurse Ratched.

This wasn't the most alarming thing that happened, and we weren't surprised considering all hospitals seem to have one or more of these type nurses on their payroll. Maybe it's some sort of an attitude diversity requirement.

Anyway, the other thing was a little more alarming to me than the demeanor of my daughter's nurse.

We were decorating the door of her room with the usual bows, ribbons and signs declaring the arrival and sex of the baby. As we were doing this, one of the nurses came up and said "We no longer allow the doors of our new mothers to be decorated."

Someone in the family said "Excuse me?" The nurse then said "these days it is entirely to dangerous to advertise not only that you have a newborn, but also the sex of the baby".

It seems that not only are there baby thieves striking at area hospitals, but the children are being snatched according to the perpetrator's boy or girl preference.

I was beyond shocked when I learned all of this, although considering what I already knew about the state of the world, I'm not sure I should have been.

We had seen the security guard walking, at a somewhat alarming rate, earlier that day with his hand on his gun, mace, or whatever, and talking on his radio. Still, the fact that a child could be in danger of being stolen never occurred to me.

Right after the nurse completed her no decoration rule explanation, the baby arrived in the room. I immediately unwrapped him, to get a better look, like grandmothers do, and that's when I spotted it.

He was wearing a small ankle bracelet that made him appear as if he were on house arrest. It was a small white hard plastic square box type apparatus with a ribbon type material running through it.

I asked the next nurse that entered the room what it was. She looked at me, and without batting an eye, said "it's a tracking device".

Well, after a hard pause, I looked at her and responded with "are you serious?" She assured me that she was.

Upon hearing this, needless to say, my daughter and son-in-law never let my grandson out of their sight again.

I left the hospital thinking even the most precious moments in our lives cannot remain untouched by crime.

The only thought that followed that one for me was...Let us pray...