My FAVORITE part of the Labor and Delivery Story...

I left out my favorite part of the labor and delivery story because I think it deserves its own space. So here it is.

First of all, my prayer was that whenever the Lord decided Wyatt should come, I wanted to glorify Him in the labor and delivery of this child. Secondly, part of the way that I prayerfully decided that would be, was through having Wyatt naturally. That was my plan at least, if all went well. I thought that was best for Wyatt and me. That's all - it wasn't to prove how macho this woman is or anything like that, at all. Plain and simple I wanted to glorify the Lord and I thought it might look like that. And it did for us.

SO! My favorite part of the story is that I so longed to glorify the Lord in this process. Did I know why having Wyatt naturally would do that? Partially, sure! I knew some of the side effects on the baby and mama when she is given pain medicine and birth inducing medicine, so I thought no one might ever know, but that's how the Lord would be glorified. However, the Lord SHOCKED me with a sweet opportunity!

People who aren't believers and are involved in the labor and delivery process will tell you that the true woman comes out in labor - and our birthing class instructor even warned the men in our class that they might not recognize their wives! Eek!

There were many times throughout labor that I wanted to quit. I wanted to a) not be in labor, but since that wasn't an option, b) I wanted DRUGS! And LOTS of them!! But each time I was ready to throw in the towel, I felt a calm and reassurance that only came from the Lord. I would asked to be checked and have progressed another centimeter. Father knew I needed that to keep going!

It didn't stop there. Even when I felt the pressure and the need to push, I wanted to be done! But really, there's no going back at that point, you can't just stop! Haha :)

All-in-all to say, that my favorite part was that I got to tell my delivery nurse and nurse-midwife about Jesus. And the reason? Because by God's grace I wanted to be obedient in glorifying Him in all things, even in labor in delivery and that was my prayer, and I received this opportunity to do that verbally!! The nurse and nurse-midwife could not some raving about how well I had done. That I hadn't complained. That I was happy, that I smiled, that the whole time I was just pleasant. Even going through labor!. I've never seen anyone in labor, but apparently they had never seen anything like that. But the SUPER FUN part about that is that it could have only, only, only been Jesus in me! And I got to share that with them!!! Anything good in me is Jesus. Period. Plain and simple!

Without Him, my true self is angry, bitter, selfish, hateful, messy, rude. All by God's grace and to His glory I have joy and peace and love in my heart because HE has made me new and gotten rid of all that junk - and that's what they saw! They saw this new woman that Jesus has made me! I am still a work in progress but I am thankful that when my heart, my true self was revealed, it revealed Him!  Ahhh still praising the Lord for this!

(In addition, when I went back for my 6 week check-up, my nurse midwife was not able to see me. But she was still going on to people at the office about how well I had done, how pleasant and happy I was. That if she had another baby, she would want to do it like I did. SO I GOT ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO TELL THE NURSE I DID SEE ABOUT JESUS!!!! That anything good Anne saw in me was only and could only be HIM! Praise the Lord for what He has done and is doing in my life!!!!)

The End :)

(My disclaimer: While naturally delivering Wyatt was my plan, I also realized there was many opportunities for things not to happen that way. And I was okay with that!! Sometimes we don't know the best plan God has for us. I was open to whatever! Also, just because this is how I felt I could glorify the Lord, does not mean every labor and delivery needs to follow this plan to glorify the Lord. It just doesn't.)