FEAR NOT...

A few weeks ago I was eating lunch at home and watching a rerun of No Te Lo Pongas! (What Not to Wear!) on Discovery Home and Health when a commercial for a new show came on. It’s called El Peor Dia Para Nacer (Translation: The Worst Day to be Born). The commercial starts out with the narrator saying something along the lines of “These families thought they had every detail planned…” and then they go to shots of a woman going in to labour while a hurricane is about to destroy their house (Husband: “I didn’t know what was coming faster, the baby, or the hurricane!”); a woman trying to fight through a contraction while she and her husband are stuck in the middle of a traffic jam on the highway (Woman: “I thought to myself, Im going to give birth on the side of this road!”): or an operating room with doctors performing a c-section with flashlights. The commercial ended and I stared blankly at the tv for about a minute longer with my mouth wide open, then I broke into a nervous laugh. Then I thanked God that my due date is during the dry season in Nicaragua (Mid/March!), so there won’t be any hurricanes sweeping through the country.

My sister-in-law, Ivonne, (David´s older sister) once told me that the WORST time to be due is September/October because of the rain. She knows from experience-her son, Doson, was born on November 3rd, 2007. She told me that about a week before he was born it was raining so hard that water started rushing into their house (they lived on low ground at the time), and when the water was up to her knees she started packing her bags. She simply told her husband Nelson “Im going to my mom´s house” and she left.

I'll admit that I am a bit afraid to have a baby in Nicaragua, it is a developing country after all, but I know a lot of women who have-Nicaraguans and foreigners, and their babies are all fine. I´ve been to all kinds of hospitals, public and private, and seen it all. I know that I´ll be in the best hospital in the country, with doctors that studied in the US or Mexico, so I trust that they know what they´re doing. I can´t control nature, or traffic but I pray about that daily. God´s got it all under control.

There is one thing that really reassures me though.

About 3 weeks ago, just after church ended a woman that we had never spoken to before approached me and David. She said (in Spanish),
“I need to talk to you two. I want to tell you that I had a dream about you, and in the dream you (Julia) were standing here in church holding a baby. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. I want to tell you because I don´t know if you know it yet, but soon you will be parents”
Shocked and fighting back tears, I responded, “Actually, we haven´t told anyone yet, but I´m already 10 weeks pregnant.”
“Well now we know that God gave me that dream” she said.

And that was it. David and I walked out of church with huge smiles on our faces. For me, that was God not just saying “You´re pregnant” but, “You´re going to have a baby” which are two very different things. It put my heart at ease.

Now anytime the fear comes boiling up, or I see the commercial for that ridiculous show, I just remember that God told someone to tell me that Im going to have a BABY.

So TAKE THAT, Nature!!

Isaiah 43:1-2:
FEAR NOT, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters I will be with you;
When you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you.