100 gifts and counting...

Ann Voskamp challenges her readers in her book  "One Thousand Gifts" to slow down and live fully in each moment. When you are delivering a baby, there is no moment that you want to necessarily slow down or quite soak in.  That is until afterward when you are desiring to go back and recount the blessings that hid in the background of the momentary affliction.  The day after I gave birth, I had already suppressed so much of that laborious day, yet pleaded with God to bring it back just long enough so I could see evidence of Him in ways I didn't recognize at the time. So here goes...a birth story recorded through the gifts He gave me along the 22 hour journey to meet Nora Grace. 

*Note: Anything in italics are words/songs spoken over me.

1.  Car ride with no pain
2. Go bags packed and prepared
3.  Calcified placenta - meaning I could be emitted that night instead of 2 days later when I was "officially" 41 weeks
4. Delivery suite with bedroom and living room
5. Yummy foot long subway sandwiches
6.  Cold showers...for overheated pregnant women
7. Fans that hide the lack of A/C
8. Nurses eager to practice English 
9. Natural medicine to "ripen the cervix" before trying Pitocin
10. Contractions starting only 2 hours later 
11. A mom who is a light sleeper (gently tending to my "midnight moaning")
12. Hymns to hum
13. Fluffy pillows to squeeze
14. Verses memorized
15. Medicine removed...natural contractions in full gear!
16. No Pitocin needed 
17. Personal doctor that comes at 2:00 am to sleep in our suite to just "be there" if I need her
18. Yoga balls
19. Hands to grasp...squeeze...clench...
20. Warm showers
21. Warm showers with yoga ball
22. Sweet nothings whispered with every contraction
23. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus..."
24. Mom/husband team of worshipers and prayer warriors
25. "Be still and know that He is God."
26. The act of waiting, groaning, longing...reminding me of Jesus
27. Filled lungs...deep breaths
28. 10 minute rest periods granted ("Jesus can I please just have 10 minutes of no contractions so I can sleep?")
29. The ability to squat
30. Lots of pillows!
31. Effaced cervix
32. Support team with lots of energy
33. Grace and understanding to pause in conversation between contractions.
34. Long awaited 3 cm!
35. Contraction tracking app (to time some lasting 6 minutes long!)
36. "So do not fear for I AM with you, do not be dismayed for I am your God"
37. Maternity swimsuit top
38. Wheelchairs for transporting
39. Scrubs for my MOM
40. Make-up to refresh
41. Dimmed lights
42. Soothing music
43. Warm tub filling
44. A room full of nurses just waiting to tend to me
45. Weightless body
46. Any position possible, moving all around
47. Tub handles and pocketed bottom
48. My legs fitting just right so I could push against the side
49. Fixed gazes
50. "Honey, you were designed for this..."
51. Crying out to Jesus as is if He were the only one in the room.
52. "Thank you for the cross Lord, thank you for the price you paid."
53. Doctors praying over me
54. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus...look full in His wonderful face.  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
55. Massages for my back
56. Warm water
57. "Be still, be still...and know that I am God."
58. Healthy heartbeat check
59. Hands to squeeze
60. Assurance at my breaking point
61. Overwhelming rush of PEACE
62. Fixed gaze on the prize
63. 6 cm!
64. "Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord...Emmanuel, God is with us...blessed redeemer, living word."
65. Strong lungs to breathe
66. Self-control
67. No irritable word uttered (truly a supernatural HELP!)
68. "Jesus..carry me...hold me...help me...."
69. "You can do this, Lauren"
70. No cultural tension
71. American advocates
72. Air-conditioning
73. Fists as loving head rests
74. Silence
75. Concentration
76. Re-heated tub
77. "I need thee every hour, in joy or pain...come quickly and abide...or life is vain."
78. Back rubs
79. Prayers of thankfulness - Jesus as the focus
80. "Beautiful moments" recorded on cell phones (with permission)
81. Another healthy heartbeat check
82. More back rubs
83. Sweet nothings in my ear
84. Forehead kisses
85. "I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
86. New position...rocking, swaying.
87. 10 cm only 30 minutes after 6 cm!
88. Beautiful design for my body to work and take over
89. Encouragement to finish strong
90. "Great job, Mama" with every push...from all the doctors
91. Guidance to slow down to protect me from tearing
92. Deep breaths
93. Perseverance
94. Self-control
95. Supernatural "Hulk-like" strength - as my man called it.
96. Straining for the prize
97. Visualizing Jesus
98. "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith."
99. An "it is finished" sigh...
100. Relief
101. Baby on my chest
102. Happy, sad, I'm-so-proud-of-myself, confused, delirious tears
103. Capable nurses to bring human color back to my blue baby
104. More endurance for the 2nd birth
105. Across the room gaze at my baby girl
106. Locked eyes at my man...my support...my love
107. Only slight tear
108. Painless stitches
109. Chinese doctors all practicing her little name "Nora, Nora..."
110. More happy tears
111. Pride filling my heart
112. More loving gazes...in a trance...world fading around me
113. Affection from doctors
114. Healthy 7 lb 11 oz baby Nora
115. New life...Jesus glorified

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (or doctors and nurses), let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely (fear, anxiety, panic), and let us run with endurance (taking deep breaths and pushing) the race that is set before us (delivering your baby), looking to Jesus (FOCUS), the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him (your baby) endured the cross (the pain, humiliation and vulnerability), despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (proud, loved, humbled)."

Hebrews 12:1-2 *emphasis mine...as well as the added words ;)