To Lea on her birth day, celebrated twenty five years ago with much drama and joy — we cherish each day with you in our lives…
May the wind always be in her hair
May the sky always be wide with hope above her
And may all the hills be an exhilaration
the trials but a trail,
all the stones but stairs to God.
May she be bread and feed many with her life and her laughter
May she be thread and mend brokenness and knit hearts…
~Ann Voskamp from “A Prayer for a Daughter”
Your rolling and stretching had grown quieter that stormy winter night
twenty five years ago, but no labor came as it should.
A week overdue post-Christmas,
you clung to amnion and womb, not yet ready.
Then the wind blew more wicked
and snow flew sideways, landing in piling drifts,
the roads becoming impassable, nearly impossible to traverse.
So your dad and I tried,
worried about being stranded on the farm far from town.
Our little car got stuck in a snowpile in the deep darkness,
our tires spinning, whining against the snow.
A nearby neighbor’s bulldozer dug us out to freedom.
You floated silent and still, knowing your time was not yet.
Creeping slowly through the dark night blizzard,
we arrived to the warm glow of the hospital.
You slept.
I, not at all.
Morning sun glistened off sculptured snow outside our window,
and your heart had ominously slowed in the night.
We both were jostled, turned, oxygenated, but nothing changed.
You beat even more slowly, letting loose your tenuous grip on life.
The nurses’ eyes told me we had trouble.
The doctor, grim faced, announced
delivery must happen quickly,
taking you now, hoping we were not too late.
I was rolled, numbed, stunned,
clasping your father’s hand, closing my eyes,
not wanting to see the bustle around me,
trying not to hear the shouted orders,
the tension in the voices,
the quiet at the moment of opening
when it was unknown what would be found.
And then you cried. A hearty healthy husky cry, a welcomed song.
Perturbed and disturbed from the warmth of womb,
to the cold shock of a bright lit operating room,
your first vocal solo brought applause
from the surrounding audience who admired your pink skin,
your shock of damp red hair, your blue eyes squeezed tight,
then blinking open, wondering and wondrous,
emerging saved from the storm within and without.
You were brought wrapped for me to see and touch
before you were whisked away to be checked over thoroughly,
your father trailing behind the parade to the nursery.
I closed my eyes, swirling in a brain blizzard of what-ifs.
If no snow storm had come,
you would have fallen asleep forever within my womb,
no longer nurtured by my aging placenta,
cut off from what you needed to stay alive.
There would have been only our soft weeping,
knowing what could have been if we had only known,
if God provided a sign to go for help.
Saved by a storm and dug out from a drift:
I celebrate each time I hear your voice singing,
knowing you are a thread born to knit and mend hearts.
*my annual “happy birthday” to our daughter Lea, now a 4th grade school teacher*
Thank you for such a wondrous tale of birth, joy and the celebration of Lea!!
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Everything Duncan said. Oh my word…. how beautiful. And how beautiful she is!
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Exquisite! Brought tears to my eye this frigid JAN morning.
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Happy Birthday and many bright blessings to this beloved child of God! Beautiful post and pictures!
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I love your posts! Warms my heart… Happy 2018! Thank you…
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Oh, the differing things God uses to lead us where we need to be, at the time we need to be there!! His faithfulness continues to astonish me! This story of beautiful Lea’s birth gives me both smiles and tears! Happy Birthday, beautiful one!
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I sqeezed my eyes shut and bawled right along with this! I didnt exactly get a chorus of cheers, either, but joy, yes! I did get that. Happy birthday to your miracle daughter.
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A most blessed Happy Birthday to you, Lea!
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Yes, this brought tears to my eyes as a read the wonderful story of Lea’s arrival Gratitude that even then you and your dear husband heard God’s whisper to get to the hospital, storm and all.
You are such a quilt maker of words Emily. Thanks for sharing your love.
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Beautiful remembrance, dear Emily. You, Dan, and Lea — caught upon and within a slender thread, hovering between possible grinding grief and disappointment, and a joy and thanksgiving that only He can give….And your baby girl, Lea, now a beautiful young woman, full of promise and already committed professionally where she will be of service to those who will need and benefit from her ministration….
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What a beautiful tribute, and what a beautiful woman she is.
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Happy Birthday Lea, Well done parents.
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A wonderful story. Thank you for sharing.
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