Gracegirl

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Saturday Night Life

Well, I thought I wasn't a sleepwalker. Now I'm not too sure.

Early this morning, I realized I had to get to church. I looked at my clock and thought "Ah! I need to get ready!" I still had to pick out my clothes, so I went to my closet, and chose from a few different outfits. I realized that the outfit I desired would need a shirt to go with it, so I got that out of my drawer. But these both needed ironing, so I headed down the hall to the ironing board and plugged in the iron. I looked in mom & dad's room, and they were fast asleep. I thought that was a little weird, but hey, it was Sunday morning. We'd all gotten to bed late. So once the iron was warm, I started ironing my shirt sleeve, when my mom sat up and said, "Katie, what in the world are you doing?" She was greeted with the genius reply: "Ironing." And I was awakened from my foggy state by her next words: "At 3:30 in the morning?"

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Amazing Grace

God is always so good. He faithfully reminds me that He is sovereign. This will be a long post, but it's an amazing story.

This morning, I had only ten minutes in my muddled morning state, to get a quiet time in, before getting ready for work. But as I woke up, I prayed that God would give me an opportunity at work to share my faith, and with that opportunity, the words to speak, and with those words, the boldness to speak them. It seemed like a bold request, but I prayed it anyway. I read my Bible for a few minutes, trying to keep my blurry eyes on the pages.

Fast forward to lunch time. As I sat down to lunch with my boss Victoria, and my co-worker Angie--a mother of two--our conversation was somehow directed to children. I told them, "When I get older, I hope I can have a lot of kids. Like 12." They looked at me like I had two heads--as most people usually do whenever I say that. Victoria--who has never had children--said, "Oh, I don't know. Try working at a daycare and see if you want to be a parent. It's a whole different thing playing with kids. It's another thing to be there to put them to bed, and always have them around." Angie agreed.

I told them, "I know it's different. But that's what I want. I've been around enough kids at church and babysitting to know. I grew up an only child for ten years. I hated it. But every time I've been around well-run big families (and I know there are exceptions--not all are well-run), I have this desire for the same type of family. I love it."

Then Victoria asked, "So did your parents just decide after ten years that they wanted to have another child?"

I told her, "My mom had a rough time of labor with me and wasn't sure she wanted to go through that again. But once I was seven, my parents realized that they really could have another, and that they wanted to. So they started trying. My mom had two pregnancies, ending up miscarrying twins, and giving birth to a stillborn baby girl. But then she became pregnant with my brother. It was a rough pregnancy, and she was put on bedrest. After one of her ultrasounds, the doctor told her that she should abort the baby, because this was a cornual pregnancy. What that meant was that he was up too high, and she could bleed to death. We don't believe in abortion, so that wasn't even an option. So as my mom was on bedrest for two weeks with this news in her mind, she read her Bible. She kept reading this Psalm (139) about how God made us intricately and knew us before we were born. Her Bible kept flipping to (Isaiah 45:19) a passage about God's promises being faithful. And she knew that she was doing the right thing, but she still didn't want me to go without a mother."

At this point, both of them are absolutely intent on what I'm saying. About now is when I realize that this is a witnessing opportunity--just take it as me being a little slow today. :)

So I continue, "Two weeks later, mom had another ultrasound that showed that this was not a cornual pregnancy after all." Victoria lets out a deep breath and rolls her eyes upward in amazement. I told her, "I know! It was such an amazing thing. My brother was a miracle baby. So many of our friends were praying for him. It was an incredible testiment to God's faithfulness and the power of prayer. It totally built my faith. So, to answer your question, yes, ten years after I was born, my brother came along. And boy, was I happy."