Happy Valentine’s Day
Up until last year, this holiday held a mostly neutral place in my
heart. But one year ago, Valentine’s Day
changed forever. Now, I absolutely love
Valentine’s Day. It turned out to be the
day I got to meet my Micah.
I still say that a due date is just a good guess, so he
wasn’t truly late, but Micah did come two weeks past his expected day. When they heard my early February due date,
some people would comment, “Oh! Maybe
you’ll have a Valentine’s baby!” Here’s
a note for future reference: never cheerfully
tell a pregnant woman that maybe she’ll add two weeks to a very physically
uncomfortable time in her life. I’d try
to smile politely and change the subject.
In the end, those well meaning Valentine birthday wishers
guessed correctly. Micah was born on
February 14th a little before sunrise, at home, with the help of
Jeff and two midwives. He was even born
en caul, with his amniotic sac intact – a pretty rare and special occurrence.
Two weeks late is a far cry from what mothers of preemies
go through. Rather than watching their
due date come and go while their belly expands and stretches, preemie moms get
surprised with an early birthday. My
cousin had her little girl at 29 weeks (I need to fact check and edit this post
if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s the number). She’s now a tall, athletic eleven year old. I remember thinking with both pregnancies, “I
made it to 29 weeks.” It was my pregnant
brain’s excuse to breathe easier. Emma
turned out great, so my baby would probably have a good chance if he came at
that point too.
Right around that time of pregnancy, I also heard that
one day in the womb saves three days in the NICU. That’s why doctors work so hard to keep the
baby from coming too early. The womb is
a powerful place. It may seem strange
that I’m writing so much about these preemie thoughts when I had a very
non-preemie baby. There’s a reason. Stick with me!
I’ve dealt with some depression this past year. I’m starting to come out of it one step at a
time. One thing that helps is to spend time
with God in the morning. Unfortunately,
feeling depressed is not super conducive to getting up early. Add to this that my three year old has
started losing his affinity for sleep.
He recently told me he hates his bed and wants to throw it away (then he
conked out on it for two hours – toddlers say and do funny things). So, this morning, I woke up at 5:30 and felt
God’s nudge to spend time with Him. I
was barely downstairs when Luke shuffled out of bed asking for breakfast. What the heck? How is it, on the one day I actually get up
to do something positive that he wakes up an hour earlier than usual?! I was so very mad. After putting him back in bed with a star
light timer set to turn off in one more hour (thanks Aunt Nicole and Uncle
Brent!), I settled on the couch with my Bible.
I had to put ear phones in to muffle Luke’s whining upstairs. I was still mad.
Then God reminded me of that NICU / womb time fact. Brooke,
every minute you spend in my Word has infinitely more power than a minute spent
doing anything else. Don’t think that
because this time is interrupted that it holds no strength. Spend even thirty seconds focused on Me and
you will be filled with My power.
Jeff ended up soothing Luke with a book, so I got a whole
hour of Bible time. But, I thought about
it differently than when I started. Those
were sixty minutes of “womb time”, of concentrated life given to me. I was grateful for the gift of that time in a
new way.
Every day in the womb is precious.
So precious. It’s a very powerful place.
Every moment spent with God and His Word is powerful. It’s supernaturally different than other
minutes you may spend.
So, Happy Valentine’s Day,
Happy Micah Day,
Happy Day of God’s Strength and Love Available to
You.
black and white photo credit
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