Everybody say hello to the newest member of the Aldrich clan, Ezekiel Aldrich, or baby Zeke as the nurses are calling him. Baby Zeke was born yesterday, November 7th, at 10:04am by cesarean section and both he and Charity are healthy and recovering well. We are praising God for the blessing of our new child and for protecting both baby and mother through the birth process.
For those of you who know my family and I, you probably already know that things did not work out like we had been planning. After the last two of our children were born quietly at home with little fuss or trouble, we had planned for baby Zeke to enter the world in pretty much the same way. For the last few weeks we have been preparing our home for the birth, gathering and staging the supplies needed. When this weekend came and Zeke's due date approached we had everything ready and we were as prepared as we could be.
But like everything in life, you can never be truly ready for every possibility. After a few hours of labor with baby Zeke's heart rate dropping and mother not progressing as she should the decision was made to go to the hospital. Within a few hours more of close monitoring both mother and baby, the doctor recommended a c-section and we were whisking Charity off to the operating room. Within minutes we were welcoming our newest child.
After all of it, we never did get an answer as to why the baby was having heart rate problems or why things were not progressing as they should have. I guess it would have been easier to accept the interrupted plans if we knew that we had narrowly averted some life-threatening disaster. It is always easier to praise God in difficult times when we can find the reasons (or at least think we can) behind them. What is not so easy is trusting God and praising Him when there was no obvious reason for any of the problems, and there was no unseen disaster avoided by God's divine change of plan.
So for now it appears my choices are to keep looking for the underlying "divine purpose" in all of this so that I can praise God for that, or I can simply trust that even in this seemingly unnecessary interruption God is still working and actively seeking what is best for his beloved children. I am resolved that I may never understand or be able to explain why this birth didn't go as we had planned. But just like baby Zeke clings to my hand looking to me, completely helpless and trusting me to care and provide for him; I guess I get to cling to my Father and completely powerless to bring my own plans into being, just trusting Him to care for me and my family, and our newest member.
FedEx,
President,
Men of Praise Motorcycle Ministry
Praise Him for seemingly unnecessary interruptions - He has a reason, you can trust in that. Say hi to 'Charity' for me!
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