To understand why the remembrance of Ethan's birth is still a sacred time for me you have to know a little about Jac's birth. I wrote about Jac just a couple of weeks ago, but I purposely left out a portion of his story. During the time I was pregnant with Jac Lindy and I owned two houses and three vehicles. We had one enormous house payment and three car payments for two adults. I won't go into the hows and whys of our circumstances--that's really a blog post for another day--but, needless to say, we were really questioning God as to why the house we were trying to sell didn't sell for 18 months and why we couldn't sell our third vehicle for nine months. When it was time for Jac to be born and I had to wait ten extra days, let's just say that I was really feeling like God had completely forgotten about me. I guess I could have written God off, thrown myself a pity party, and turned away from him completely (that's hard for me to even type with a straight face because it would be so completely out of my nature to turn away from God). Our circumstances could have also driven Lindy and I apart, but it only made us closer. Everything difficult we've been through has only drawn us closer. He's my lobster, what can I say? But, three years later, after God had helped us sell our house and our extra car and given us our beautiful, healthy boy, Jac, I was on the brink of my due date with Ethan....
I can so clearly remember it as if it were yesterday. It was Wednesday, June 26, and I was off work that day and at home with Jac who had just turned three years old. It was around 9:30 in the morning and I clearly recall just giving God a long sigh and saying, "Please, God, it was so hard waiting last time for Jac to be born. Would it be possible for Ethan to be born on his due date?" It wasn't just the waiting for Jac to be born that was hard. It was the package of circumstances going on in our lives at the time that just made the waiting that much more difficult. The thought of waiting days for another baby brought all of those same emotions back to me again, so I was just longing for God to let Ethan be born on time. Two hours later I was in a toy store with Jac when I felt as if a balloon popped inside my belly and a sudden rush of fluid started puddling at my feet. This was no trickle, ladies. This was amniotic fluid gone crazy!! I was able to drive myself home--no contractions yet--and Lindy drove back home to Maryville, IL from St. Peters, MO to pick me up and race me to St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield after dropping Jac off in St. Charles. If you're not familiar with the St. Louis area that's a lot of reckless and imprudent driving for a husband who is determined not to deliver his wife's baby in the car. By the time we got there--around 2:00 p.m.--I still wasn't even in labor. Ethan had not bothered to even drop into the birth canal. I guess he just poked a hole in the sac and said, "I'm going to just sit tight for a while so that I can be delivered with a nice round head-- unlike my brother, Jac." After a few hours of Ethan "laboring down" which was really just me sitting upright letting gravity and Pitocin help, I finally started dilating and got my epidural as soon as possible. Thank God for modern medicine. Anesthesia's going to make my newborn a little sleepy? I'll take it!! Getting to a 4 is painful enough. I have no desire for natural childbirth. Just my opinion. So, just before midnight Ethan was ready for delivery and on the second push he made his way into the world at a tiny 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 21 inches long (compared to his brother). His first act on this side of my uterus was to pee on the doctor's shoes which resulted in the first word he heard being a cuss word. :) (It was actually one of my doctor's partners doing the delivering and he did a fabulous job, cussing or not). Ethan was born at 12:05 a.m. on June 27, 2002--his due date. The doctor told me that only 5% of babies are actually born on their due dates.
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| This was my 30th birthday--Ethan was 20 days old. Before I got pregnant I asked God for another baby before I turned 30. |
Here's where I get to the God making Himself real to me part. I didn't really sleep much that night. Too much adrenaline and excitement. Too much joy over being able to lie on my stomach after nine months. Some slight complications which turned out to be nothing, but kept Lindy and me awake. But, it was during that night at around 3:00 a.m. when I remembered to thank God that He had seen in His infinite kindness to answer my prayer in allowing Ethan to be born on his due date. God spoke to me and asked, "What time was Ethan born?" 12:05 a.m. "Robin, I did that just for you. I allowed his birth at midnight on his due date just to prove to you that I can work in your timing and to let you know that I never forgot about you all those times you wondered why I was so late in answering your prayers. My timing is perfect and, once in a while, I can work in your timing." Wow!! Maybe you've never experienced that voice when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's God speaking. Maybe you think I'm crazy. I don't really care. God is so real and He wants to speak to His children. God's not just about religion and a bunch of "don'ts" or someone who is looking to condemn you and put guilt on you. What He really wants from you is a relationship--the kind of friendship where you can turn to Him when there's no one else. He wants to give you peace and I've lived a life of blessed peace all because I've chosen to let Him be my Savior and the Lord of my life. I may not be your average pastor's wife, but I am still a pastor's wife who wants everyone to have the freedom that can only come from accepting Jesus.
Well, I should move forward in my story of Ethan. Nine years has passed since that day and this boy God has given me is so uniquely special. I mentioned in the title of this post that Ethan is not plain vanilla. Ethan is Mr. Personality. He is polite and kind and quite a bit "outside the box." He has loved to dress up in costumes since he was old enough to say the word "costume." He's passed this trait on to his younger brother.
Ethan's latest obsession is with anything military. He got a full camo suit for his birthday and real dog tags.
He has guns and holsters and has been to the gun range with his Dad and older brother. Ethan has given me a lot of material to write about this year, so if you've missed out on some posts you might want to read the one about his ski accident and about his recent hospitalization. Both of those will give you a lot of insight and will keep me from being repetitive.
Ethan is heading to kids' camp this week and I believe this is his sixth year to go. Before he could go as an official camper he was going along with Lindy to hang out with him. (Jac did the same thing). Ethan is very independent--as are all my boys. (I wonder where they get that from). He's not afraid at all of being away from home.
His biggest desire at the moment is for his own room. He has been campaigning for his own room for months. He has taken to sleeping in the guest room most of the time and has slowly been moving his stuff in there. The wall behind the bed is covered with his posters and Paper Jams guitar. Eventually, we might give in, but for now it's still "officially" the guest room. Ethan is a pack rat and is very sentimental about the minutest item. I have to regularly force him to part with stuff. He acts like he's gotten too big for his Mom to kiss and hug on him but it doesn't take much encouragement to get him to sit on my lap. When I hug him he's never the first to let go. He can't fool me. He's fabulous at being the middle child. He can keep up with Jac and still play Legos and Play Doh with Gavin. He's quick-witted and sarcastic beyond his years; and will get his feelings hurt if you don't think he's funny. He doesn't need a lot of discipline because he has a gentle spirit and a contrite heart. My Ethan is a one-of-a-kind child. While the other two take after my side of the family in their physical features, Ethan is Little Lindy--in looks and behavior. Maybe that's why he's special to me, because he's a replica of my love. I love all of my boys equally but each one of them is special to me in their own way. Ethan and I have a food connection. We are the chocolate lovers. We are the only two who eat tomatoes, black olives, and cantaloupe. He loves chocolate so much and I learned just how much when I was home with Gavin on maternity leave. I was cleaning one day and happened to look behind my china hutch. What should I find but candy, candy wrappers, and scissors. He was only three years old but it was kind of like a Mom finding her kid's drug stash and paraphernalia. Chocolate was his drug and he had the scissors stashed with it in case there was a wrapper he couldn't open by himself. Busted!! He still loves sweets and I had to cut him off the other day because I realized he had eaten 8 chocolate chip cookies, a fudge bar, and two popsicles in the span of one afternoon. He had no sweets for the rest of the day or the next.
Ethan is my little blondie who gets blonder during the summer. He says, "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad" every time we walk in the room--even if it's only been five minutes since he's seen us. He loves his dog, Piper. Piper's middle name is "Joe-the-Plumber," in case you weren't aware of that. Middle name courtesy of Ethan. Can you tell that we got Piper during the excitement of the 2008 Presidential campaign? If you are friends with me on Facebook you might know that we had the St. Louis area "dog whisperer" at our house this week. Ethan was going to be the broken-hearted one if Piper didn't turn from his wayward activity. He is successful so far--or we are as it turned out that Lindy and I needed leadership training. Can you believe that? A pastor and a professional with 15 years management experience and we needed leadership training for our dog. I'm going to leave it at that and let Lindy comment since he'll have a different opinion on the "we" part.
Just like my post about Jac, I can't seem to ever say enough to convey how much I adore my boys. I hope they always see my face light up when they walk in the room. I hope as a mother of boys that I'm everything I need to be to help them be the men God will shape them to be...and the husbands of beautiful, stylish women who will love them more than life itself...and the fathers of children who will look up to them as examples as they've looked up to their father and grandfathers.
Ethan, my living testimony of God's kindness toward me, I love you very much and always will. You're my favorite eight-year-old boy...until 12:05 a.m.
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