Fingerprints All Over My Heart
Day 48
Learning lessons that are oh so important. Mostly about different cultures, personalities and relationships. Learning that when I speak, those words leave my lips…. travel through space (and time) and lands in the ears (and hearts) of others, but the variables of what the other person may think I meant are infinitesimal. Learning that when another person says something to you and it travels back across the room that you may hear something totally different than what they actually said and meant. I want to be the kind of midwife who can listen with her heart, her mind, with relevant cultural sensitivity, with relevant “personality” sensitivity. I want to do this in a way that helps me to serve others and still fulfill the calling of the powerful woman that God wants me to be… a woman of Virtue! (for those of you that don’t know it, when the bible talks about the woman of Virtue it is the same term as mighty man of Valor. I want to be a wise warrior woman, fighting FOR women, fighting FOR midwives everywhere, fighting FOR apprentices everywhere…. those are my true battles. When other issues arise it is only the enemy's way of keeping my eyes and heart off of the really important things. Those “things” aren’t things at all of course, but people. People are who I want to serve… who I need to serve… who I am CALLED to serve. Whether they are my sister students/midwives, my beautiful birthing mamas, their families or those sweet babies arriving earthside, or my own circle of loved ones, this is what My creator has made me for, and it is the most wonderful “job” imaginable!
Today there was the most lovely woman that came in to have her baby. It had been a long journey for her and she had started labor three times only to have it stop again. I had already spent one long night on labor watch with her and so was excited for her that she was finally in active labor. Through it all, she smiled, and Smiled… AND SMILED! Her smile was so great and so deeply genuine! Her husband and little boy were with her and they were all equally happy and contented, even with the extended laboring. I will forever have the picture of them in my head with her on the birthstool, her husband right behind supporting her and curling into her, and their little two or three year old boy nonchalantly leaning on dad and playing a video game on their phone as the baby begins to emerge. Birth happens folks, and it is a wonderful thing when it is part of the fabric of life. The baby was good sized with cherubic features and a lovely contented nature. The mom had a couple of minor issues afterward that dictated a longer postpartum watch but what a great blessing! The family and I had wonderful conversations and they asked many questions. We segued easily into learning about each other’s families and I feel blessed to have a little peek into this beautiful family’s lives.
God is teaching me things… good things, hard things, painful things, humbling things, beneficial things, growing things, selfless things, maturing things, joyful things, BLESSED things! Thank you, thank you for my daily lessons!