April 23 - A Birthday!

Today is a day of celebration in our family.  Younger daughter, Emily, was born this day exactly 30 years ago.  Happiest of birthdays to you, sweet girl!!  We Face Timed and sent a gift via Venmo, the best we could conjure up during quarantine.  She is working remotely, at her home in Ohio.  She would be about 3 weeks from her wedding if Covid-19 had not made a mess of things.  Her equally sweet man surprised her with bakery treats this morning and forbade her bringing in any packages that arrived on the front porch.  Hmmmm.  Glad he's a romantic who likes to dream up surprises for her.

The day of her birth, we were home for about 10 minutes during our lunch break.  The phone rang, and my doctor, whom I had talked with only about 3 months earlier, was on the line.  "I just delivered a healthy baby.  Do you want it?"   "Yes! Yes! Yes!  Thank you for choosing us!!!"   I hung up and ran to the bedroom to tell my husband.  "Boy or girl?", he asked.  "I forgot to ask - all I heard was 'healthy baby'".  So we sat on the patio and thought up a boy name and a girl name before I called the doctor back.  We had her home to join us and her sister, almost 2, the next day.  What a thrill.  Instant family.

No one is related by blood in our little nuclear family.  I guess the way we came together is my strongest personal evidence for a loving God.  I grew up in South Arkansas, Stephen in Boston. There is a 7-year age difference between us. The odds of us meeting and falling in love were very slim.  Then our lives were blessed with two beautiful daughters, who could have gone to any number of loving couples who wanted to adopt a child.  Each of those events felt to me like God reached down and handed me the deepest desire of my heart. What I wanted most in this life was a family.  And I have the perfect family for me.  Thanks be to God!!

A calligraphy of this birthday prayer hangs in Emily's room, a gift from her Godmother on the day of her baptism, June 3, Pentecost, 1990:

Watch over thy child, O Lord, as her days increase;
bless and guide her wherever she may be, 
keeping her unspotted from the world.

Strengthen her when she stands;
comfort her when discouraged or sorrowful;
raise her up if she fall.

And in her heart may thy peace,
which passeth understanding, 
abide all the days of her life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen