Baby Watch

The past 2 days have been full of anticipation. I've been waiting for friends' babies to come.

The first was dear Natalie from Trinity. She was expecting her second child- another boy. His name is Joshua and has been for a long time. As soon as they found out it was a boy- they named him. I love that! Such a testament to life. We don't name "tissues" or "organisms". We name people. And Joshua has been a person this entire time. God's known him forever- his parents just got to meet him yesterday.

I went to bed on Sunday night knowing that Natalie was in the hospital, dilated to 6cm. I woke up in the middle of the night and thought of her. From then on I had some pretty scary labor dreams. I don't even want to tell you what they were. I kept waking up, assuring myself that it wasn't real and then falling asleep right in the middle of the dream again. It was awful.

You can imagine my joy and relief when I finally woke up and got a text saying Joshua was here and they both were safe and sound.

Then last night, I went to bed knowing that my sweet neighbor Beth was in the hospital. This is her 3rd child- also a boy. Jett is his name and he was a surprise-to them and to us. But not to God, of course :)

I don't know all the details of her delivery yet. She was supposed to be induced, but that kept being pushed back- like 5 days pushed back! Beth was admitted last night around 9pm, but just had the baby an hour or so ago. I had hoped to wake up with good news from her, too- but I had to wait longer for that.

All of this reminds me of how unpredictable babies are. Natalie was due on the 10th, but Joshua didn't come till the 13th. Beth's due date is this Friday, but she's been dilated to 3 for almost 2 weeks. We think we know when babies are coming, but we really don't. Even though Beth was going to be induced, she had very little control over that situation...

Yet, God did. Birth is one of those areas of life where we have to trust Him. We really have little control over when it will happen and how fast it will happen. There are so many details that we can not control. Praise God that He can, though!

I can't wait to sit down with each of these friends and listen to the details of their birth stories. What surprises were there? How did God show up?

And I can't wait to tell you my story in a few months. Until then, I'll keep praying that I have a heart that trusts and gladly hands over the control to Him. : )