It's Friday - time for our weekly trip down blog memory lane!
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standing s t i l l
{Originally posted November 18, 2008}
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A Note Today:
One year ago - almost to the day - I took this photograph. Nearly each evening for weeks, I had been waking in the night with contractions too strong to sleep through. So many times, we believed our baby was coming soon, and we'd start to get things in motion - filling the birth tub, even calling in our birth team a few times. I would labor through the evenings and then, as the sun came up, everything would slow and settle down (and we had missed another night of sleep!). There was a lot of waiting that month, a lot of daytime napping, a lot of frustration, and a lot of searching for s t i l l. By the end, and in retrospect, we were able to see that time as a beautiful tunnel we were in together as a family as we waited to meet our baby.
On this night, I had some henna ready for a gathering with friends that was to be the next day. But before the little ones went to bed, I decided to let them do a bit of henna on my belly. They did, and then slowly - one by one - the four of them drifted upstairs to bed. I sat in the quiet, in front of the wood stove and continued like this for hours. Once again, searching for the still and quiet in the time of waiting and wondering.
Two mornings later, I would wake with a start in the early hours of a day - November 22nd - and with all the previous months 'work of labor' behind me, we met Harper in just a matter of minutes. (I wrote about his birthday here.)
They all have their own circumstances of pregnancy, labor and birth. Each as true and special as they are. This weekend, we'll celebrate all that happened in November of 2008, and even more importantly, the strong spirit and sweet soul of the little boy we've come to know in the year since - our dear little Harper Jude.