joy of nine9

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• My daughter-in-law is in labour for their first child as I write this. The doctor who has delivered three other grandchildren delivered four of my kids! Where other doctors might give up hospital duty first and keep a cushy office practice, this doctor let all of his regular patients go and kept the obstetrical part of his practice because he loves what he does. I cannot help but remember one of my own deliveries with this  dedicated physician.

• For my eighth delivery, our doctor had warned us to come into town immediately with my first labour pains

because that baby was going to come quickly. Dr. H met me outside the hospital, helped me out of our old van, into

a wheelchair and literally ran past admitting with a huge grin on his face yelling,

“Sorry. No time to admit her. I’ll do the paperwork for her after the delivery. See you later!”

He was still chuckling in the elevator over the shocked expression on the admitting clerk’s face. We moved

slowly out of the elevator and Dr. H peered around the corner to check the nursing station. He sighed happily,

“Good. The head nurse is on coffee break and no one is in the natural birthing room. Olga is going to have a fit when

she sees your stats on the board and that you are in here!”

He laughed loudly this time as we darted into the softly lit room. Michael walked in a little later, holding eighteen

month-old Grace, her pink, frilly sun-suit on backwards, straps crossed across her chest with her nipples peeking out.

Even though I was in the middle of labour, I was embarrassed. The obstetrical nurse, noticing my reaction, looked

over her shoulder at my toddler, turned back to me with one eyebrow raised and said,

“Let me guess. Daddy dressed her.”

• And of course I always link every birth with the birth of Jesus, especially this close to Christmas.

• I might have nine kids and soon five grandchildren but every birth is a miracle.Uultrasounds help make the fact that there is a tiny person in each womb but still it is shock to hold a big baby, a complex little person, knowing that moments before he was actually inside you and seemed more like a blob than a person.

• Scripture helps us grasp this miracle New American Standard Bible

Jeremiah 1:5 –

 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Galatians 1:15
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased

Psalm 139:15
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Psalm 139:16
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Isaiah 49:1
Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

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