A Funny Thing Happened in a Labor & Delivery Room

My friend Amanda came over this afternoon with her children Nolan and Kristen.  She is pregnant with her third child and is currently six days past her due date; and by inviting her, I was hoping to bless her with some cheerful distraction during these days of nearly-interminable waiting.  Turns out I was the one who was blessed.  Besides the joy of her companionship, I also benefited from her willing hands to help me take the seeds out of three gallons of sour cherries I got this morning and prepare them for the freezer.  I really didn't invite her so that she could help me do my work!  ;-)  But "many hands make light work"; and between her hands and Josiah's (who was competing with Amanda to see who could fill the most pints) and David's (who seemed to put more cherries in his tummy than into his container, prompting Josiah to say, "It's like Blueberries for Sal, except it's Cherries for David!") and Nolan's (for a little bit) and Tobin's (for an even shorter amount of time) and mine, we finished a job that would have taken me so much longer if I had been attempting the task alone.  It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun to do it by myself either.  :)

While we worked, we talked, of course; and in the course of our conversation, Amanda told me this story.  A true story, by the way.  :)

There is a nurse who works in our local hospital, as does Amanda.  That nurse happens to be pregnant, too, with a due date very close to Amanda's.  She (the other nurse, not Amanda) had found out that she was pregnant with a girl; and they had chosen a name for their daughter.  Only problem was, the lady's mother, who is also a nurse in that hospital, hated the name...until one day when she was working in labor and delivery and assisted in the birth of a baby girl, born to a family that the nurse really became fond of.  The baby girl was given the name that the new granddaughter would be given, and suddenly the grandmother had a change of heart and realized that she actually liked that name a lot after all!  :)

Maybe you've guessed already, but the name of both baby girls is Moriah, and the grandmother in the story who was initially so resistant to that name was Arlene, the wonderful nurse we had and whom I wrote about here!  :)

Isn't it so encouraging to realize that on that Monday morning back in April when we walked into the hospital and were assigned to a particular nurse, not only was God blessing us by letting us have her sweet presence with us during labor and delivery, but God was also using that encounter in that hospital room to change her mind about her new granddaughter's name?  I'm honored to have been a tiny part of that, and so grateful that Arlene's daughter happened to tell Amanda about this and Amanda told me.  So often, I KNOW God is working, but I don't SEE His hand.  In this case, I caught a glimpse of what He was doing, and it brings delight to my soul.

Mutual blessings.  Amanda and I in our time together this afternoon.  Arlene and I in that labor and delivery room.  How good God is to arrange such encounters!  What a joy to be a part of them!