Aren't children a journey? Whether the little (or big) ones in your life are babies of the belly or the kind grafted in by grace, you are on that journey.
We feel like many of you have been 'in' on our family's journey all along. But I suppose there is no harm in starting from the beginning. The better you know us, the further down the page you can skim read. :)
Like each of us, we began this parenting calling with joy & apprehension. Max is 7 now, but I still recall ( & Jon with me) how that little guy turned our independent, scheduled life upside down. We knew, all thanks given to godly parents & a chosen love for the Word as adults, that this new perspective was the
right one. This shift in focus & willingness to change meant our definition of things like
vacation,
afternoon off,
meal time, church participation &
Christmas decorations changed. Really, how many broken antique glass Christmas tree balls does one endure before finding one more durable?
I thought my work as a nurse & time as a new wife had been one of increasing surrender & trust. Little did I know the call of mothering would take me beyond all of those lessons. I will admit to being surprised by the level of effort needed to deny my selfish spirit & pour myself into the Biblical, culturally radical job before me.
Daily denial.
Mothering so often fizzles down into plain servant hood. It has worked more surrender & trust in my spirit than anything else. When your self rears its selfish head at another unruly child at quiet time when I-deserve-to-rest, when thoughts & tasks are interrupted to tie shoes to skateboards, when a carefully prepared dinner meal is declared 'disgusting' ( That one received truth over grace!), when faces are clown painted with marker the night before the church Christmas program, I am thankful to see the works of the Spirit in my life.
My every response is not gracious. But, by grace, the
pattern of my responses is. I don't aim to complain or brag. I aim to encourage, to inform young mothers of the difficulty of the path of motherhood. It's not all covered by the sweet love we feel toward that helpless newborn. Or the well intentioned reminders that 'in a blink' the diapers will be traded for a drivers license manual.
When this journey is taken on our knees in surrender & trust, it will be one that bears the fruit of the spirit in our lives through
everyphase. We cannot live in surrender & trust if we are constantly sighing for the next, easier phase. I have it from an excellent source those teenagers bring some serious fruit in a mother's life. ;)
Before Max turned 3, our country life was turned upside down again by newborn Rory & an energetic little city girl who came to us through foster care. Although she soon returned to her birth father, a 2 day old little sweetie came & stayed. Elle was adopted 15 months later.
Never before that time had I been forced to so clearly choose between embracing motherhood & just surviving it until kindergarten. Picking up a newborn at the hospital when you have a soon-to-be 3yr old & a 2 1/2 month old at home will do that. Truly, when God moves & we surrender He picks the pieces of us up off the toy-strewn floor, puts us back together & teaches us servant hood. My very existence as mother is proof of the Source of power!
I am grateful for the family & friends around us who encouraged us in this call over & over. Words & actions given are not forgotten to this very day!
And, yes. About this very day. I am entering week 26 of pregnancy. Number 4 is expected to arrive March 13.
My best explanation for getting pregnant while living overseas is that God didn't give us peace about waiting. And He could have. It's what we expected Him to do. We have 'enough' here, right? Apparently not in His eyes.
Max, Rory & Elle are anticipating this baby so much. We have many conversations about what the baby might be doing at this very moment, what they eat (food from blood!?), if they hear, why they wiggle and, of course, just how they will arrive.
I tend toward sciatica pain in my legs during pregnancy. So far the pain rating has only gone high about twice. Honestly, it's not the moments of harsh pain that are the worst. Jon & the children take excellent care of me. It's the weeks when the pain is constant stiff ache. Did I say surrender earlier? Surrendering to pain & doing my work with a cheerful spirit is a current lesson for me. Max so kindly rubbed my leg the other day & told me he just wants the time to come for the baby to be born so my leg can stop hurting. And I agree.
Another joy of pregnancy in West Africa as dry season begins is enduring the heat & accompanying fatigue. It's so strange for me to feel so much hotter than I ever have before here. And have heat rash like never before. On my arms, for crying out loud! FYI, heat rash is a raised bumpy irritation that itches til you scratch it, then it burns. Different things help, nothing takes it away. We'll put that on the surrender list too. ;)
The sweet peace of the Father is present as we continue on. This is His child I carry & He is more than able to care for this little one. This was just as true when we lived in Pennsylvania. Here we carry the reality of surrender & trust before us daily. Our focus may have been blurred before by level one university hospitals, fire companies & ambulances, reliable electricity, the nearness of beloved family. No more.
He provides,
He protects, He
knows the path ahead.
We have twice visited Egon Clinic for maternity appointments. We travel about 30 minutes in light traffic into Accra to reach it. So far I am measuring correctly & my lab work is fine. I wanted to include a picture of the inside of a patient room. When I asked for a tour-it's that single story building just beyond the parked cars- they laughed at me & asked if I thought I'd be returning tomorrow to deliver. Then they told me I can wait til another time. There's a glimpse into medical culture for you. Patients are to be obedient & not ask too many questions.
Seriously, the ObGyn is German & I'm pleased with her level of knowledge & skill. I'm not a comnplicated patient & actually look forward to a 'lower' level of care. By lower I mean skilled staff but care in a basic clinic setting instead of a university hospital with all the frills.
Besides, I've got the best nurse & coach around. His name's Jon & he has gotten me through twice before. :)
These two pictures are just to give you a visual of what a clinic looks like here. The buildings include basically what you can see in the bottom picture. It's dusty & crowded outside, dim, but clean, inside with a sputtering air conditioner. The magazines are in German. The patients are a mix of Middle Eastern, Ghanaian & American. It's mutlicultural health care at its finest. I even get to walk by own labs to the other building for testing.
What an adventure. Grace required!
