Come Away with Me

We've started getting down to the fine details of what we need to pray for this baby. Funny thing is the actual "home birth" part is not a worry at all, but there is something else that is consuming every bit of my heart. 

We chose to birth at home with a midwife because I want a peaceful birth and a healthy baby. I'm a healthy mama with no complications, so this decision isn't risky. Although, I will say, I don't know if I'd be so secure in my decision if our back-up hospital wasn't just minutes away. I'm not doing this to add a "Look What I Can Do" trophy to my collection, We're not doing this to be reckless, different, or rebellious. 

As I've been writing in my journal about my own birth, praying over my dear friends upcoming births, and writing prayer requests for prayer cards for my baby shower, I've gained a much deeper understanding of my desired birth experience. 

The biggest revelation [which I think I just have forgotten since Lily's birth] was how close birth can bring you to your spouse. It's been said that raising small children is the most trying time in any couples marriage, I'm starting to believe that He's created the birth experience in such a perfect way that you can enter the trials of child-rearing joined by pain, endurance, and bliss. It's a high and a driving force that a lucky few get to experience.

"Wives, Submit to your husbands as to the Lord"

Eph 5:22

I bet you never thought of this verse in such an intimate way. Usually, this is used to remind women that we are to be obedient, and to be subservient, but recently I have found a whole new meaning to this verse.

When I was praying for a friend , I remembered my husband's hands on my belly, I remembered him smiling through my contractions and making me smile through my pushes, and most of all, I remembered the Lord whispering to me "Hold on to Eamon, hold on to me." I nearly broke down from the joy of knowing that my sweet friend would get to experience this new kind of submission with her husband soon too.

At one point, after Eamon had been propping me up for hours, I heard Norah Jone's "Come Away With Me" Through each contraction, I fell DEEPLY in love with him. Not once did I think "YOU did this to me, stay away from me!" All I could think about was how he was there with me... He was sticking this out with the once 15 year old girl that he met in the library, and the eventual 90 year old woman that he would have to help roll out of bed one day. If he was battling through this with me, without question, he is always going  to be there for me. This reassurance wasn't just because Eamon's such a stand up guy, but it was because in that moment, more than any other time in or marriage before [or since] I was submitting to my husband as I was submitting to the Lord. Physically I was submitting to my husbands prayers to minimize my pain as I let him take some of the weight off my arms, or legs, or hips, as I spiritually allowed my God to take the pain and distraction from my heart. At some points during my labor, it was very intentional, during others, it was nearly involuntary.

I'm sharing this now to encourage some of my many friends who are due very soon. I encourage you, whether your birthing at home, a birth center, or the hospital, to embrace your husband, as you would the Lord. He has placed him very specifically in your life at this point to be there for you in this birth! This experience is comparable to little else in life, soak in every aspect of it!

Mae