A New Addition

I love the tender mercies of the Lord! We welcome a new granddaughter, Samantha Kelly to our family. The mercies are a safe delivery and a perfect baby. But they extend further than that.

Rebecca flew out to be with Deborah around the time of the due date. But Rebecca had to work around Dan’s schedule. She arrived on Saturday and planned to take two of her children to Grandma and Grandpa’s on Monday. Deborah went to the doctors on Monday and was 5 cm dialated! Still, she wasn’t having any contractions and so decided to drive Rebecca and children the 2 hours there and 2 hours back to make the drop off. All went well.

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When she returned home, contractions started. She grabbed a bite to eat. Ian arrived home and had a quick meal. Then they headed for the hospital and arrived at about 10pm. I had called Ian’s phone, thinking Deborah might be carrying it for the trip, but there was no answer. However, Ian saw the missed message shortly after 10 and returned our call. So we were able to visit with Deborah while she was in the hospital, but before she became too uncomfortable. It was wonderful and helped me feel close to her in this important time.

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We needed to go to a teaching appointment, but left knowing when we returned we might have happy news. The road there was awesome from Tom’s point of view…. Awful from mine. After we turned off the main road, there was 22 km of dirt, mud, deep ruts, mud, pools of black mire and worse. The road would dwindle to a bike path threading through humps and hillocks that looked like you might lose a wheel in them. Tom off- roaded. He followed other’s alternate tracks. He entered uncharted territory. He had one wheel on the bike path and the other in a lake… or at the edge of a rice paddy, or climbing Mt Everest and then descending to the Grand Canyon. I was so stressed. It was absolutely the worst road I have ever…. er… um... I digress.

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When we returned home, we found lovely messages saying we were the happy grandparents of Samantha who was born about 2 hours after our phone call. The timing for all the events could not have been more perfect! So many tender mercies of the Lord! Deborah even left the hospital phone so we could call back. It has been so fun to visit with her by phone. We don’t feel so far away. And Rebecca blogged so we even have cute pictures of her.

Imagine, we visited a family in a rural area without electricity, running water, minimal sanitation and a baby born 2 days ago at home--as the closest hospital is an hour by truck over said dirt road. Yet we have the means to call around the world in split seconds and to see pictures of a baby born there minutes later. We are so blessed. And yet, the African mother is also happy. Her family is close around her. She is safe and warm and has everything she needs close at hand.