About 6 months ago, after a pretty crazy chain of events, I stumbled into a women's shelter called Our Lady's Inn. This is a home for pregnant women and their children that offers a ton of hope to these struggling women. A vast majority of the women come from very abusive pasts, some from early in childhood all the way until now. I asked them if they needed any help and to my surpise they told me that they lost the grant for their nurse earlier in the year and have been praying for someone to step in without pay. I told them that I would love to help and the rest is history.
I began teaching childbirth classes to them on Tuesday nights. After my very first class a sweet girl named Brandi approached me and told me she had a question for me. After some prompting she finally had the courage to ask me if I would be in the delivery room with her when she had her baby in the summer. She had no one else. I of course told her that I would love to be with her and from that point forward a relationship developed. I would often hang out with Brandi and her other two children after class. The kids are absolutely darling and very funny!
And so the last several weeks we have been counting down until the big day. I have slept for quite some time with the phone by my bed just in case she went into labor during the night. I often worried since in was summer that I would have a hard time finding a place for the girls to go but I just prayed that God would make it all possible. And that He did. Rachel and Madi were away on their mission trip and Jordan and Livi were at the Lake with Grammy and Papa. I was getting a little nervous since I was in bed for days with the flu but just as I was feeling better the phone rang and Brandi was in labor.
I took some time getting there as I packed my bag of goodies. Lotions, things to occupy my time, snacks etc. Brandi was only at 2cm when she called and the baby was very high still. At the hospital Brandi wanted to get into the shower to ease her back pain but after a few minutes said that she felt some pressure. If anyone has worked in ob they know that the word "pressure" causes some alarm. But since not even 30 minutes before she was at 2cm made me think she still had a ways to go but she did have a funny, sort of paniced look on her face. She got back into bed and to everyone's surprise the baby was crowning! After a quick yell down the hall a nurse came running in and literally caught the baby! Crazy!
The baby was perfect and screaming away. She weighed 7lbs7oz and was 20" long. My labor bag never got opened once. :) I am so thankful that I was able to share in this amazing women's birth...she is such an inspiration. I wish her many blessings as she starts rebuilding her life. I know in my heart that Brandi is going to be a success story. She is a great mother, hard worker and very firm in her faith. I hope that they are all a part of our lives for a long time!
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