(And All My) Work Be Praise

An edited post from the archives, originally published exactly five years ago . Ten years ago today, at approximately 7:00pm, a new guy showed up at our church's young adults' Bible study.  It was a good long time ago, really, but a few details stuck in my head (and who knows why I was even paying attention?!): *New guy was short, bespectacled, and wearing a yellow T-shirt.  (I have no idea what I was wearing.) *New guy sat on the couch closest to the door of our pastor's old house, while I sat in a chair next to the dining room (and the snacks.  Some things never change). *New guy typed notes onto his laptop instead of using the paper outline and pen like the rest of this.  I found this rather pretentious. *New guy claims to have tried to talk to me that evening.  As any good introvert would, I backed out or ignored him or some other mildly-rude behavior to save me from a conversation with a stranger. Two days later, new guy shows up at our fall camp-o...

For background information, or just to relive the first four with me:  Levi's birth story , Owen's birth story , Silas's birth story , Toby's birth story What I wanted more than anything, in this my third planned homebirth, was (as my new midwife, Maureen, coined it) a no-drama birth. No panicking over low heart tones, no paramedics, no ambulances, no cord issues. I'm honestly not sure if I got what I wanted. With respect to myself, this pregnancy was a million times healthier than the last two. My blood pressure stayed low the entire 41 weeks, minimal swelling and that not till the last week, no need for herbal tinctures or intense hip massage (see Silas's birth story, linked above). As with the last two, baby measured quite big (at least two weeks ahead of schedule) from about 36 weeks on, but inasmuch as I have demonstrated my ability to birth big babies, I wasn't worried. No-drama birth ahead indeed. I was, however, naive enough to think that thi...