Catching Up Part 2

Read Andrew's catch-up post below if you haven't already. He's pretty much covered everything, I'll just add one other story that happened on Annie's birthday:

Ever since becoming a doula, there is a very big fear I've had: Needing to miss an important family occasion (esp. birthdays or Christmas) in order to attend a birth. I knew it would happen sooner or later, and I'm actually surprised it's been this long (although I have tried really hard to be careful about when I accept clients).

Well, the day before Annie's birthday, my client called to tell me that she had been having early labor contractions for a while. We kept in touch all day, and I just knew that I had to have EVERYTHING ready to go for Annie's birthday the next day. So I rushed around finishing preparations and trying to plan ahead in case I had to leave. I kept praying really, really hard that I wouldn't have to miss any of Annie's birthday, but I knew I had to be prepared regardless. Luckily, Andrew had already planned to take off work and spend the day with us for Annie's birthday. When things slowed down for my client later that evening, I thought maybe it would be a day or two. I even started to relax a tiny bit. But just before 7 am on Annie's bday, the phone rang and I knew I would have to leave. I'm sure you mothers can understand how my heart ached as I said goodbye to my little two year old on her "happy-day" (as she calls it), not knowing when I'd be back. I was so worried about missing this day with her.

When people have asked how I manage to be a doula with young kids, one thing I've always said is that if I am prayerful regarding the clients I accept, the timing of the births has always worked out really well. I had felt good about taking this client, even knowing she was due close to two of my kids birthdays. So when I got this call on Annie's birthday, I think it was just a real test of my faith.

I was at the hospital a little after 8 am. My client arrived a few minutes later. Then something none of us expected happened. Her water broke just minutes after arriving, and the baby was born just after 8:30 am. Wow. By 10 am she and her baby were resting comfortably and ready for me to go. So I called Andrew up to see where he was. Umm...he was just minutes away from where I was, on his way with all the kids to a children's museum in Baltimore. I asked him to swing by and pick me up, and then we spent a lovely day together. The only thing I had missed was breakfast. Miracles happen every day, sometimes in really ordinary ways.