faith for mom

“But, women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with propriety.” I timothy 2:15

In my early 20s, I remember reading the above scripture and feeling offended. “WHAT does that mean??” I asked God and myself over and over again. A decade later I am only beginning to have an understanding.

You see, the word “saved” here means “restored” or “to make whole,” and God has used the birth of each of our three children to bring me to a greater level of trust and understanding of Him each time.

In preparing for Zeke’s arrival, I just knew he would arrive early J. That is the hope of every pregnant mom, right? His due date was February 26 so right after Valentines Day we geared up for him to come “any day!” I was having consistent contractions daily and I just knew we would be rushing to the hospital at any moment.

As February 26 came and passed, and at each doctor’s appointment the report was: “nothing has really changed in your body,” I grew discouraged. “Would Zeke ever come??”

I sat reading my Bible (The Message version) after one of those low moments, the day before my due date, and this is what I read: “we pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us..” Colossians 1:11-12

Then it hit me. Ezekiel means “God will strengthen”! What God was doing in me was out of my hands because His purpose was to strengthen me, to give me a glory-strength that you can only get from God so that I can take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for me, including this new child!

The doctors scheduled an induction for 5 am on March 4, so as days passed I just figured I was supposed to be induced. But, I couldn’t accept that. Even though I felt peaceful about having an induction scheduled, I felt like I should pray that God would bring Ezekiel himself.

I prayed. Charles prayed. Our family prayed. My fellow-mommy friends prayed. And, at 8:15 pm on March 3, my water broke. I couldn’t believe it! God was definitely making himself known. We put our kids to bed, packed up, and headed to the hospital.

After we arrived and settled in, Charles asked our nurse if we could pray together for 30 seconds. She was hesitant, but agreed. He prayed God would bless her as she worked and that His presence would be with us as we were together that night. After we prayed, her attitude completely changed. She smiled and opened up.

Although my water broke, I still wasn’t having contractions several hours later so at midnight they started me on pitocin. Within an hour or so, I was having full-on contractions every couple of minutes.

But, as that was happening, they noticed that every time I had a contraction, Zeke’s heart rate dropped dramatically. They weren’t concerned at first until they tried many things (stopping pitocin, amnio-infusion, etc.) and nothing changed. Then they started to talk to me about a c-section.

I had a peace the entire time because God has answered so miraculously the challenges we faced during our other births. “No, no.” I said. “No, c-section.” So I woke Charles up and we simply prayed: “God, please make everything right. Keep his heart rate steady, and help him drop into the birth canal.”

Although the nurse started doing basic preparations for a c-section, we watched the heart rate almost immediately straighten out on the monitor. She said “Hmm. Look at that. His heart rate is steady. Did you say a prayer?”

And, I said “Yes, ma’am! God is answering it too.” Ezekiel dropped into the birth canal and within about 30 minutes, I went from 5cm to fully dilated. And, with 2 contractions, he was out!!

Here is the most miraculous of all: The cord was wrapped around his neck twice!! So, technically, as he was being birthed, his heart rate should not have become steady, it should have become worse. As he born, the doctor said to Charles “Watch this.” Charles said she leveraged herself and pulled the cord off his neck with some effort.

The nurse was amazed. I was amazed. Charles and I still are so blown-away at God’s faithfulness for answering our prayers and keeping our son.

He was born perfectly healthy at 7lbs 11 oz and 21 inches. No complications. Eats awesome. Sleeps well. And, is happy and content.

It was kind of a long story. Thanks for hanging in there. But, all of it to say, “God has made me, as a mom, stronger!” He orchestrated every part of this story even though at times I felt like “God, why are you not answering my prayers??” But, He was. He had it under control.

“Trust me,” He says gently but with strength. I care more about you than you know.