Before the month of May ends, I want to tell you a great story of Faith and answered prayer. The fulfillment of this story happened on May 3, 1988. It was the birth of our second son and last child.
Let me go back to l981. In 1979 we had our second daughter and like most people in America at that time our mindset was that we have now had our two children and that's it. We had two beautiful healthy daughters. My husband and I had never really discussed how many children we wanted and it was just an accepted fact that we had two children so it was time to stop. So in late 1981, when I took our youngest daughter out of the baby bed and she started sleeping in a regular bed. I thought it was time to get rid of all the baby clothes and baby bed etc. I had a big garage sale and sold everything. I remember thinking it was sad getting rid of all the baby things and I hated thinking that part of my life was over. As a young girl growing up, I had always wanted 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. My only sibling is a sister and she is 11 years older than me. It was like being raised as an only child because she was married and gone from our home when I was in the third grade. I always envied my friends who had other brothers and sisters at home.
After getting rid of all the baby things I couldn't get rid of the feeling that I really wanted more children. I was 31 at the time and I was feeling that I was getting almost too old to still be having children. I felt like I might have a couple of more years and that would be it. I really got that mindset from my gynecologist.
I still have very vivid memories of this day. The girls were down for a nap and I was praying and I started talking to God about having more children. My prayer went something like this. I don't know if it would be alright with You but I would like to have two sons. You know I'm getting older and I thought if I could have twins I could get it over with in one pregnancy. I don't want them to look alike. I want them to be from two separate eggs. I have always wanted to have a baby in the fall but God you know my dad just died last year and I would really love having sons born on my dad's birthday. I know You know what is best for me so would you let me know if it's ok to have two sons.
As you can tell, I was pretty much of a baby spiritually because at the time I didn't know that God viewed children as a blessing and of course He would want me to have more children.
I'm not going to get into this part of the story. But briefly, God had been dealing with me about love. Loving people that were not easy to love. Finally, one day He said if you don't obey me I can't bless you. In my mind I thought I have to obey you. So I changed my attitude and did what He was asking me to do. The next Sunday, I went to get our youngest daughter out of her class after church and she was waving a picture she had made and wanted me to look at it. It was very cold that day and I told I would look at it when we got to the car. When we got into the car I looked at her picture and it was a cut out of a church glued onto a piece of construction paper and the doors of the church opened up. When you pulled the little doors back and looked inside there were two twin boys sitting in a stroller. I knew God was telling me that we were going to have twin boys. I was pretty excited to say the least.
Two months later I became pregnant and the babies were due in November. I knew God had heard my prayer and these little boys were going to be born in the fall. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was having twins and that they were boys. I never doubted it. I started telling family and friends that I was having twin boys and told them what I had asked God. Mid way through the pregnancy I asked my doctor to check for twins and he told me he didn't think I was having twins. I told him I was having twins. To get to the point, our oldest son was born the day before my birthday in November and he was alone, there was not another son. I still felt that God had heard my prayer but He thought I only needed one son instead of two. He did give me a son and he was born in the fall. So I was very happy and I trusted that God knew what was best.
Four years later, in 1987 quite to my surprise I became pregnant. And guess what, this baby was due on my dad's birthday. I knew from the moment I found out I was pregnant that this baby was a boy. Well on May 3, l988 (my dad's birthday) our last son was born. When I was pregnant with him I was looking in a book of baby names. We already liked the names Will or Sam but I was just looking to see if there were any other names that hit me. I saw the name Jonathan and I knew in my heart God was telling me to name him that. I didn't particularly like that name but I knew God wanted me to name this child Jonathan. The meaning to the name Jonathan, is God's gracious gift. During the pregnancy, I had been dealing with a lot of fear but God kept reassuring me to trust Him. He had given me a scripture that He would deliver me at sunrise and I wasn't sure what that meant. I went in the day before my due date for an appointment and my blood pressure was too high. They kept me and was going to induce my labor the next morning. Well my water broke during the night and my labor started and the baby's heart beat kept dropping and three different times during the night they thought they would have to do an emergency c-section. The last time the heart beat dropped was around 5:00 in the morning. They rushed me to the operating room and once again the heart beat returned to normal. I laid on that table for almost an hour and they thought it would be ok to take me back to my room to continue laboring. When they pushed me through the doors there was a large window in the hall way and the sun was just coming up. I knew I would be ok. About 1:00 in the afternoon that day our last son was born and when he was delivered the doctor said, "oh this is the problem." Our son had a knot in his umbilical cord. The doctor also said, "you are very lucky most babies don't make it when this happens." Jonathan truly was God's gracious gift. That afternoon I was a truly blessed woman. I got my second son and he was born on my dad's birthday and God had saved his life and I was almost 38 years old.
Several months ago, my daughter and I were talking about children's names and she asked me what girls names I had picked out when I was pregnant with our sons in case the baby had been a girl. I told her I never had a girls name picked out because I knew they were boys.
I hope this story encourages you to pray and believe. I truly believe we have not because we do not ask. You can never give up on a promise from God. Always remember, we are on God's time table not our own.
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