Anna's Birth

It's about time I told a little of Anna's birth.

Never in my life have I ever done anything so hard. Physically giving birth was draining, which I expected, but surprisingly it was also emotionally draining. Let's just say that there were situations during Anna's birth that were disheartening 'set backs'. Eric and I are still in awe that things ended up as they did; our only explanation is that God had his hand on the three of us.

After two days of laboring (half of which I was stuck at 7cm) we agreed to start a med that would help make the contractions stronger to aid in dilation. After a few hours of this aid, I was still at 7 cm and the Dr. came to say it was time for a C-Section. I'm sure you can imagine our not liking this turn of events when we had come so far in the process only to be told that this was 'it'. After asking a few pointed questions of the Dr. we decided that we would attempt one last thing before allowing a major operation to take place. Our doula, Barbara, suggested that I take a little time to "rest" with out people coming and going, with the lights off, lying still between contractions. At the time I thought 'how am I going to get any rest from these contractions?' but we agreed to try it. Barbara also asked if we would like to pray together. She prayed that I would be completely dilated and that God would have his hand on the situation, his will be done.

This story is shaping up to be a happy ending, so you can guess what happened. God worked on my body and Anna was born, naturally. But the thing that still amazes me, and hopefully will for years to come, is that we asked and God worked. Why I stand in awe of this is a sad reflection on what I believed the Lord was ( and is) capable of. Thanks be to God for his loving presence and power.

Anna's name means 'Grace', which for me has taken on so much more meaning then before she was born.