Nine Days

Today, while I was whining to the Lord about how much I want to sell our house and feeling positively frustrated that it has taken so long, a sudden thought popped into my head.

God is faithful even with the silly things.

A few months ago, while I was approaching my due date, I was very upset by the thought of our baby being born on Grace's birthday. I was fervently hoping for a bit of space, both for finances and for the sake of specialness. So each girl could have "their day". After agonizing over it and realizing that I couldn't do a single thing to control that situation, I came to the realization that God loved Grace far more than I ever could, and me worrying about how two close birthdays would affect Grace wasn't getting me anywhere! So I gave it to the Lord (still with difficulty, I'm sassy like that!) and hoped that He'd have mercy on me! But that was after many attempts to bargain with God or otherwise "control" the situation.

While at small group one day toward the end of my pregnancy, I shared my frustration with my small group. One of the women mentioned to me that her children were only eight days apart. I laughed and said that I would gladly take eight days! I was concerned that there would be zero days, so eight sounded great to me! I began to pray that specific prayer, "Please, Lord, let the baby be born at least eight days before Grace's birthday."

Now, I know this is silly. But it was important to me. And when I went into the doctor on February 26 and I was still not in labor, my blood pressure was still looking decent (so less chance of being induced early) and my next appointment wasn't until March 6, I was a bit disappointed and was mentally preparing myself for having two birthdays side by side.

But God answered that silly prayer. Elaina was born February 27. God said "Here you go, My silly girl, I'll give you one better than eight. How about nine?"

I won't say that I'm not still struggling with wanting to worry and stress over whether or not our house sells in time for us to get the other house. But it did make me pause. It was such a silly little prayer, really. It wouldn't have scarred either Grace or Elaina to have close birthdays. Lots of siblings do! But He answered my prayer anyway. Even if the house doesn't sell in time, I need to better trust that the Lord knows best. And he's so faithful, even with the silly things!