One of my birth stories is 22 years old but it is still fresh in my mind…
22 years ago my dear mother was driving our van 90 MPH down the highway while I laid in the back huffing and puffing and doing EVERYthing possible to not push. My dear husband was saying to me “Isn’t it a little early for that?” I really did not like that question.
I also wasn’t very kind to the midwife as we pulled up (or rather screeched up) and I told her threateningly she BETTER NOT tell me I was at a 4 or 5. She said sweetly, “Honey you are not at a 4.” They wheeled me in and I begged, NOW can I push!!!?? The midwife very laid-back said “You can push whenever you want” (really? I had wanted to push for the last 30 minutes!) So I pushed and out came little William before you could shake a stick. (Please never shake a stick at someone in labor, btw.)
There my chubby, sweet baby lay with HUGE wondering eyes, as calm as can be.
And I was in love. How can that happen? I thought my heart was full when I married Steven. Then I thought is was full when my firstborn came around. Little did I know my heart would become 8 little people, 8 little pieces of my husband and myself, full.
When my dad came later bringing my toddler to meet the new baby. He said “Like falling off a log, huh?” Not quite Dad, not quite!
You know, I have always wondered, how come the moms don’t get presents on their children’s birthday? They sure need to be remembered cause the memory of the labor never leaves their minds. I mean, just go up to any 90 year old woman at a nursing home and ask her about her labors with her children. And honey, she may not remember what she had for lunch that day, but she sure as how remembers EVERY detail of her labors. Because thats what moms do. Moms give and moms love and moms labor. And they would do it all over again and again. Because every one of these little humans that God gives us are precious and priceless and worth every last drop of sweat and tears.
You might be in the thick of it with little ones, dear mama. But, trust me, you will blink and you will be reminiscing of a day that was 22 years ago and yes, even kind of missing it. A little bit. But, then again having the nearly grown children is pretty great too.
And by the way, I look JUST like that photo over two decades later…ahem.
