With the year anniversary of my going into the hospital, God has really been working in my heart. As I've written before, I've been struggling with the seeming randomness of His blessings and grace and wondering a) how in the heck did I get through it, and b) what about all the other women with similar stories.
Last night I was praying and pondering what I could do. I've been working on a book about all of the blessings God showed us throughout our infertility, misscarriage, and difficult pregnancy, but have been plagued by the remoteness of it coming to fruition and my love for procrastination. I was thinking that I could take baskets to women in the hospital like I did for the woman at my church--full of soft toilet paper, bendy straws and post-it notes--but then I remembered that, as a general rule, I don't like meeting new people. I pretty much assume that if I don't know you, there's probably a good reason for it. After all, I'm like a wet sponge. Saturated.
So today, for Valentine's day, Henry and I went to pay a visit to my nurses on 3 West at Henrico Doctor's hospital. I took them goodies and we laughed about how many things I had up on my walls and how no one was allowed to visit me when Guiding Light was on. How there were pictures from my nieces and nephews everywhere. They said they'd used my making up of a schedule and adhering to it as encouragement for many patients and I confessed that it wasn't the schedule that got me through it, but God and God's good use of them and my doctors.
Then a nurse told me that she had a patient there that had been admitted at 23 weeks (exactly when I went in) a couple of days ago, and that she was pretty down and scared and would I be willing to talk to her. Before I'd even had time to think that I'd be talking to someone I don't know I said yes and I was pushing Henry's stroller into a hospital room.
I met this women who like me, had her feet high up in the air. She was very thankful to see me and asked me tons of questions. We talked about my schedule, how I had billions of pillows, the best way to cut meat with one hand, bed pans, hospital food, greasy hair, the fear of losing your child, the nurses, ultrasounds, meds, basically everything that I went through. We laughed. And then all of the sudden I was talking about how being in the hospital was a blessing. That it was hard--but what the enemy meant for harm has made me a better mom, a better wife, a better listener. I told her how just knowing that it was God's plan for my family didn't make going through it any physically easier, but it gave me peace. And I told her that I thought to have a sense of humor about it all was a gift from God too. That I thought that when the Bible talks about the fruit of the Spirit, the reason peace is listed after joy is because joy is how we get to peace. And then I asked her if I could pray for her and I did!
And I am planning on taking her a basket of goodies next week. And I'm looking forward to it.
I got the contact information for the head nurse at Henrico Dr's Hospital and am going to contact her about getting permission to make and deliver baskets to women waiting on bedrest. I would have my contact information in the basket and also tell the women to let their nurses know if they would be okay with a visit from me. (While I do have a heart for these women, I also don't want to barge in on strangers who are stuck in bed and can't get away from me unless I'm invited in.) And I've contacted the pastors at my church to see if they would partner with me by asking if other women want to joing me and gathering donations of things to put in baskets and the baskets themselves.
My aim in all of this is to glorify God by: a) encouraging pregnant women on bedrest by meeting some of their physical and emotional needs, b) providing hope and humor in a difficult time by sharing my story of God's faithfulness to me, and c) establishing relationships with these women and praying for their babies to be healthy and to come to term. I do not see this as a door to door evangelism project. In fact, the thought of that makes my skin itchy. Rather, I see it as me providing some practical ways to make their hospital stay's easier. I think if this is done, God will do the rest.
Who knew I'd get excited about meeting new people? What is God thinking?!?
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