We did Lamaze just like all the other young couples when we had our boys. But things did not work out quite like they were supposed to. Something in the structure of my hips kept my babies from turning over facedown. They were head down, not breach, but face up is a similar problem. "Sunny side up," the OB nurses called it, so their little necks could not bend far enough to make that last curve and the first delivery was far more traumatic than it should have been. Eventually the old country doctor we had in the cornfields of Illinois just yanked Lucas out with "high forceps." By the time Nathan was born we were in a larger city and the doctor there, when confronted with the same problem, refused to do something so "barbaric." "We don't do that here," he told me. But I was fully dilated and ready to deliver so we had an emergency C-section.
Either way meant I did not have that first little cuddle with a newborn. I was still under anesthesia with Nathan, and Lucas had been stuck in the birth canal so long his heartbeat was slowing and he needed extra care. Finally about 4 hours after Lucas was born, I sat up gingerly on the side of the bed and they brought my newborn and placed him in my arms. Of course he was precious and I loved him instantly, but the first thing I saw were his eyes. They looked exactly like mine and I nearly cried.
If you have been with me awhile, you know the eye saga. I have so many rare conditions based primarily on the size and shape of my eyes that I have been told it's a wonder I got past 20 without losing my vision entirely. And there he was, with exactly the same almond shaped eyes. My eye doctor at the time insisted I take him in at six months and he examined him as well as you can a baby that size. When he smiled and said, "He's just fine," I wanted to laugh and cry and do a jig all at the same time. He may look like me, but down inside the workings of those eyeballs, he is not the same at all. Praise God!
But here is something we should all wonder: what other things has my child inherited from me? Not sin, of course. We won't even argue that today. But all of us have seen children grow up to act just like their parents. Sometimes they take a tiny little flaw and take it to its logical and much larger end. "How can you act that way?" parents will often say, and then cringe in horror as their children tell them. We may have an unwritten line we will never cross. They see the line for what it is—hypocrisy—and march right over it.
It's fun to see ourselves in old photos of our parents, or even our ancestors from way back. Every photo of my father as a child shows him crossing his feet, even in a high chair. I did it as well, in every picture my mother had of me. Lucas did not, but Nathan did, and now both of my grandsons, Nathan's sons, have done it. But there are far more important things to look for, some we want to see and some we don't. Look at your children and grandchildren today. Watch them, train them. That's what God expects of us. He wants us all laughing, crying, and doing a jig on judgment day when we see those precious souls inherit a home in Heaven, despite their ancestors' flaws, including ours.
Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; Who should arise and tell them to their children, That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments, (Ps 78:1-7).
Dene Ward
Either way meant I did not have that first little cuddle with a newborn. I was still under anesthesia with Nathan, and Lucas had been stuck in the birth canal so long his heartbeat was slowing and he needed extra care. Finally about 4 hours after Lucas was born, I sat up gingerly on the side of the bed and they brought my newborn and placed him in my arms. Of course he was precious and I loved him instantly, but the first thing I saw were his eyes. They looked exactly like mine and I nearly cried.
If you have been with me awhile, you know the eye saga. I have so many rare conditions based primarily on the size and shape of my eyes that I have been told it's a wonder I got past 20 without losing my vision entirely. And there he was, with exactly the same almond shaped eyes. My eye doctor at the time insisted I take him in at six months and he examined him as well as you can a baby that size. When he smiled and said, "He's just fine," I wanted to laugh and cry and do a jig all at the same time. He may look like me, but down inside the workings of those eyeballs, he is not the same at all. Praise God!
But here is something we should all wonder: what other things has my child inherited from me? Not sin, of course. We won't even argue that today. But all of us have seen children grow up to act just like their parents. Sometimes they take a tiny little flaw and take it to its logical and much larger end. "How can you act that way?" parents will often say, and then cringe in horror as their children tell them. We may have an unwritten line we will never cross. They see the line for what it is—hypocrisy—and march right over it.
It's fun to see ourselves in old photos of our parents, or even our ancestors from way back. Every photo of my father as a child shows him crossing his feet, even in a high chair. I did it as well, in every picture my mother had of me. Lucas did not, but Nathan did, and now both of my grandsons, Nathan's sons, have done it. But there are far more important things to look for, some we want to see and some we don't. Look at your children and grandchildren today. Watch them, train them. That's what God expects of us. He wants us all laughing, crying, and doing a jig on judgment day when we see those precious souls inherit a home in Heaven, despite their ancestors' flaws, including ours.
Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; Who should arise and tell them to their children, That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments, (Ps 78:1-7).
Dene Ward
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