Today I witness about how God has been there for Tony and I for the birth of all three of our children. I talk about how God gave us so many wonderful people to help with each unique birth. At the end I have the words for the song Blown Away from Josh Wilson, if you haven't heard it, you should check it out, it's great for Witness Wednesdays. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or just click here. It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!
This morning when I got up I was not sure what I was going to witness about. I thought perhaps Tony’s friend who is in the ICU and has had several miracles over the last 20 days. However, something was holding me back so I prayed about it and I felt like the Lord wanted me to talk about how we have been blessed with so much support over the years. We had our first child, Sam, 19 years ago in the country of Turkey. We had been living there just about 2 years and we were moving back to the United States a few weeks after we had Sam.
At the time we were in Turkey you could either have your child at a Turkish hospital or you could do something called Stork Nesting, where you would go to Landstuhl in Germany at about 36 weeks and stay there so you could deliver your baby at an American hospital since they didn’t have one at our base in Turkey. I did not want to leave Tony while I was 36 weeks pregnant and go to Germany so we decided to have our first baby at a Turkish hospital. We had taken a tour and it looked like a good hospital. We knew several people who had babies there and had a good experience.
My water broke exactly on Sam’s due date in the middle of the night. However, I wasn’t having any contractions, so we went to Tony’s work and called people back in the states to let them know that today was the day. We went back home and got ready to go to the hospital. We had a nurse friend who told us by 7 am to go to the hospital even though I wasn’t having contractions. We went to the hospital and the doctor started me on petocin to get the labor started. Once it was time they took me into to the room to have the baby and Sam wouldn’t come out. They had to do a c-section after trying a few different things. Sam was born and he was beautiful.
The next hurdle was to figure out breast feeding. I had read in books that there will be people at the hospital to help you if you have trouble. My nurse at the hospital was a 19 year old girl who had no idea about breast feeding. Luckily the base had a breast feeding counselor and once I got home she was able to come and help me figure it out. The military has a tradition of brining meals to a family if they have just had a baby, or someone is in the hospital, or if one of the parents is away for a while. It was so nice to not have to worry about cooking and trying to take care of this little baby.
God was so good to send the perfect people into our lives over the years. We happened to be really good friends with a nurse and had two other nurses next door to us. One day when they were visiting they said Sam’s eye looked like it had too much gunk in it. We were told his eye might be goopy, so we didn’t think anything of it. However, when they saw it they told us to take him in to be seen. Sure enough he had some infection in his eye and needed ointment. Tony and I were both first time parents, we were so nervous as he was just a little baby and the doctor told us we would need to pull down the bottom part of his eye and put a thin line of ointment. Tony and I both shouted “Not it.” at the same time. The doctor looked at us and said, “you know one of you has to be it, right?” We explained we were just nervous and so he was so kind and demonstrated it for us. Sam didn’t cry at all and we saw that it was super easy.
We were in NJ when we had our second child, Noah. Well, I was in NJ, Tony happened to be in Colorado for a class. He was coming back in a few days. When I was thinking about writing about Noah’s birth I wasn’t even thinking about how God orchestrated the events leading up the birth so that I wasn’t alone in the operating room. We had a planned c-section with Noah. He was going to be born on All Saints Day, November 1st. That was one week before he was due and they like to schedule c-sectioned earlier than your due date.
Tony had a class he had to go to in Colorado and he had made sure we had a back up person to help out in case he was gone. The only thing is that she was busy from October 14-19th because she was away on a retreat. My sister Elizabeth and her husband and young daughter, along with my older sister Dianne decided to come visit for a few days. They were only coming down for three days, they were visiting from October 17-20th. They were supposed to get there on Monday afternoon and yet hit traffic and came in Monday night. I had an event that night on base so I say a brief hi to them and then went to my event on base. That night we hung out and watched TV together.
I couldn’t sleep that night I was having some sort of pain. I thought it was gas pain but in the morning I decided to go to my doctor’s office just to have it checked out. Tony happened to call when I was there and the doctor told him I was fine. I wasn’t having any contractions and all was good. Then she did an exam and noticed I was a bit more dilated than she thought so she sent me to the hospital just to be checked out. She told me she was sure I wasn’t having the baby today. Luckily my sister Dianne had driven me to the doctor’s office. By the time we got to the hospital, which was about 5 minutes away, my contractions were so strong I couldn’t walk into the hospital.
The doctor came in and told me I was having this baby today. I wanted to wait for Tony but he was in Colorado and wouldn’t make it in time. My sister Dianne agreed to come in the OR with me for the c-section so I wouldn’t be in there alone. Dianne did not want to have any children of her own, so it was neat that she got to be in the OR with me while I gave birth. She got to be the first person to hold our son Noah and that was really special. I was still recovering from the C-section and waiting for the sedation to wear off so I didn’t get to hold him right away. Next thing we know he is under the warming lights and the nurse said he was breathing different. They took him to the NICU and I didn’t get to see him for over 24 hours.
Tony came in that night and went to see Noah. We didn’t have a name at that point because we were deciding between Noah Alexander and Patrick Holden. I didn’t know what he looked like, I only saw him briefly. The next day I tried to go visit Noah but when I stood up I felt dizzy so the nurse wouldn’t let me go. I think I tried twice before I was able to go see him. He was so sweet. He was not really gaining weight and they wanted to put a feeding tube in but we asked them to hold off and I fed him. He was eating but it was talking him a long time. We decided to do breastfeeding every other meal and bottle feeding on the alternates meals. This way he could get more rest after he bottle fed.
It was hard to see Noah in the NICU and yet we knew God was with us. At one point they said if he didn’t gain a certain amount of weight by a certain time then they would put in a feeding tube, and he did gain the weight. We were able to avoid the feeding tube. God was there every step of the way with Noah. Every test he had to pass in the NICU he passed with flying colors. I believe he was in the NICU for 9 days. Those were very long days and yet we were blessed because he wasn’t very sick and we knew he would be ok. The same is not true for every baby in the NICU. God was there with us and also sent people to help take care of us and take care of Sam. My mom and dad came down to keep an eye on Sam when Tony and I were in the hospital. We would both sleep at the hospital for the first several days. When we went to every other feeding we went home to sleep as there was another couple who needed the room we were using. Our friends brought meals again so we didn’t have to worry about food and my parents didn’t either.
The birth of our third son was a planned c-section and my parents were in town to help watch Sam and Noah while we were in the hospital. This birth went off without a hitch. Everything went as planned and we stayed in the hospital just a few days to recuperate from the C-section and then headed home. Our family was complete.
God is so good. He has been with us throughout each of the pregnancies and through all of the births. I know they all worked out as they were supposed to and God sent so many good people to be there for us and to help us when we needed it. Sometimes we don’t realize that our friends, family and co-workers are a gift from God. We don’t realize that not everyone has that support. I think this is why I try so hard to check in with people who I know are struggling. Why I check up after people I know have a procedure. This is why I text and check in to see how those I know are doing. I have been blessed, even though we moved around a lot, to have a great support network. I know that is a blessing and a grace that not everyone has. I also know I take it for granted sometimes and I am grateful for days like today when God reminds me how lucky I am. If you are lucky enough to have a support network, people who look out for you and help you, then I ask you to be that for someone else who might not have that. Who is one person you know that could use a friend, or even just a helping hand, or even just an ear to talk to. Kindness and checking in on people is more important than you think. After writing this I went on a quick run and I heard a song that goes perfectly with Witness Wednesday. I will put the lyrics in the show notes along with a link so you can listen to the song if you have time. The words are so great, if you have time, check it out and maybe think about how we can be more impressed throughout the day with God’s miracles.
Blown Away By Josh Wilson (Click Here to listen)
Yea She's dancing like a crazy fool From the kitchen to the dining room
And she tells me, 'Baby, life is way too short to be too cool.'
She says, ‘
When did we get so serious? Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?'
There's a hundred million miracles in front of us passing by God open my eyes
I wanna be blown away! By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day
Blown away! By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around God please show me how to stop and be amazed
I wanna be blown away! Blown away!
I want to see a sunset And have to stop and catch my breath
O I never want to forget How you take a dead heart and bring back to life again
Oh! When did we get so serious? Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?'
There's a hundred million miracles in front of us passing by God open my eyes
I wanna be blown away! By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day
Blown away! By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around God please show me how to stop and be amazed
I wanna be blown away! Blown away!
The Earth is full of heaven 'Cause you're always breaking through
Put the wonder back inside these eyes God, I don't want to miss you
When did we get so serious? Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?'
There's a hundred million miracles in front of us passing by God open my eyes
I wanna be blown away! By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day
Blown away! By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around God please show me how to stop and be amazed
I wanna be blown away! Blown away!