For several weeks we held a family secret with baited breath: our beautiful Samantha had passed the at home test and was just barely pregnant. My mother would say that you are either pregnant or not. There is no barely to it. What my mother, who died relatively young, didn't know was that someone would invent a little $12 test that could tell you the news of the pitter-patter of little feet seemingly instantaneously. This is Samantha and Ryan's first baby, so you can imagine the hopeful excitement that everything would progress beyond the first few weeks and ultimately work out for a happy ending. Sam just recently blogged to friends and extended family that she and Ryan will be expecting their first future little Gator Nole alumnae late Spring '09.
They really are a cute couple. They have already had an amazing storybook romance, a wedding fit for a prince and princess and they are well on their way to a storybook life. I am crazy about them both, even if he is a Florida Gator, which makes him one of our arch rivals from the team we love to beat and suffer greatly over in defeat. One day I will tell you the story of how I threatened to cut Samantha out of the will if she attended Florida and not Florida State. We take football seriously in our family. She made the right decision, went to State, and Ryan upgraded to dating a 'Nole after seeing the error of his ways and that State women are not only smarter but prettier too, inside and out.
The "kids" went to the doctor and had the first sonogram done at eight weeks. To their surprise, they were actually able to see their baby's cheeks on the sonogram. The doctor confirmed it for them. Yes, those are your baby's little cheeks. Eight weeks and we have cheeks!
I am praying hard, we all are, that everything goes okay and Sammy carries her baby to term. We are praying hard that baby 'Nole has ten fingers and ten toes, and that he or she is a healthy, normal, perfect miracle from God. God sometimes has other ideas and other plans for each of us. Sometimes babies aren't perfect to us, but they are perfect to God because his idea of perfect is different from ours. I don't understand it, but that's what makes being a Christian such an amazing thing: it's sort of like working with a safety net. You fall, but you land in the safety of His grasp.
Can't tell you how often I have prayed for each and every child in our family by name, Samantha included, hoping that they would have a relationship with Christ and figure out that it is not about them at all. I have prayed and continue to pray that each child marries someone of faith, that they find a church that is loving to them and to others, one that is biblically based, nurturing, is reaching out to others, reflecting Christ's love for everyone, even the worst of the worst.
I am so thankful that Sam and Ryan are Christians. With this baby on the way, they are going to need to rely upon Him now more than ever, to trust Him and trust His ways and plans for them and their baby. Along their journey, it's going to be scary at times, but they can do this through His strength and the support of family and friends, and of course the church.
I think that the Palins, yes, those Palins, showed great courage having their baby when they knew that their baby would not be perfect in the eyes of the world. That's love. I guess that they were also looking at their baby through the eyes of God, not man. That's living your faith, practicing your belief, trusting in the maker of the stars and the creator of life, trusting in Him.
As Christians, it is so easy for us to say one thing and do another. We humans are so darn good at rationalizing everything to fit our current circumstance. We are the masters at creating wriggle room. Somewhere along the way, as I matured spiritually, I learned to pray daily that for that day, I would walk in His will. Sometimes it gets tough. Often we create the biggest messes for ourselves when we step out of His will. Ever pray and have God say, not now, or flat out no? Ever try to circumvent God's will? Painful, in the long run, isn't it?
Catholics and protestant faiths agree that biblically life begins at conception. During this electoral period, as Christians, we need to remember that. We can't have it our way and God's way as well if the two are in conflict. How we must break His heart. If he cares for the sparrow, how much more about you and I? How much more for that eight week old new creation with cheeks? As Christians, we are a new creation in Him, and we are either Christians who are pro-life, or we are Christians who are not under God's will.
I didn't intend to get on to the pro-life or anti-life topic today. I really am quite sick of politics at this point and I am ready to get back to blogging about real estate and marketing. But I started thinking about those eight week old baby cheeks. And I hope you are thinking about them as well. I hope you will vote against all abortions, and especially against partial-birth abortions. There are better alternatives, better choices, better acts of Christian love.
May the one who strung the stars across the night sky, who was in the cave with Elijah, who walked in the garden searching for Adam and Eve, may he search for you and may you be found, and may you be found lacking for nothing.
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