Due Date

I have been waiting, anticipating this day. The last nine months of hopeful excitement anticipating the new child in our family, and worry and concern that everything in the pregnancy goes well. It really is a long time – nine months. The day has arrived – my due date, and I am still awaiting this miracle.

She waited too, only her wait was much longer than 9 months. She suffered the aching, yearning for a child that lasted years. Through tests, doctors visits, answers that provided more questions than hope, and finally the realization that the best way for them to have a family would have to be through adoption. Even that process was long, and personal. Never sure of what the outcome would be.

I feel uncomfortable, aware of the baby lying low in my pelvic bone. I toss and turn at night, unable to find rest. It is hard for me to breathe – the baby now big enough to crowd my lungs. Contractions start and stop, at times teasing me that perhaps today is the day. When will the day of birth come?

She felt defeated, unable to lay hold of the dream of a child, and subject to the whim of a birth mother, or the agency in placing a child in their arms. It would keep her up at night. It was hard for her to breathe – anticipating, always waiting, always wondering. Her muscles contracted when she cried. Tears of anticipation, and tears of frustration. When would her baby’s due date come?

The hope of a child – as real as life itself. Two mothers, two generations.

She receives a call – twins. Not one child, but two – more than she had dared to hope for. God answered her pleas, but surpassed her expectations. He provided for her above and beyond her requests. Her heart leaps with joy and assurance in His provision. The babies arrive safely, and meld into the family unit. A complete family. A living, breathing reminder of God’s grace.

I await that moment – it will be different for me. I was the baby She had longed for. My twin brother and I filled the heart of a woman longing to give love to a tiny person crafted by God. The child in my womb is the grandchild – loved and conceived out of God’s grace and mercy to parents who don’t deserve such a miracle, but hope for one nonetheless. And God delivers. He heaps His blessings upon our family – not just fulfilling them, but surpassing them. We give thanks.

Ephesians 3:14-21:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. “