A Perfectly-Timed Reminder of God’s Love
After two boys, I so badly wanted a daughter. The boys were two years apart. Too close, I thought. Maybe we should wait two and a half years before having another child. That would take us to September 1989.
My mom's birthday is the 19th of September, so that would be the perfect day. We had my family over for my mom's birthday in September 1988, so I announced that for my mom's NEXT birthday I would have a baby girl.
Three months later, we had the shock of my sister Lynne passing away unexpectedly. You can imagine what our family went through, I won't go into that, but I didn't have my period, which threw off the timing of having a baby in nine months. When I did get pregnant, the due date was in October. Oh well.
My mom had planned a trip to China in 1988 which was cancelled because of political unrest and danger to tourists. So she was able to go in 1989 and would be gone for her birthday. When she left she said, "Don't have that baby while I'm gone, unless it's on my birthday!"
When September 19 rolled around, I started the day out as usual, with my sister Sue dropping off my nephew for the day at 8:30. She must have just left when I thought I felt something uncomfortable, but if it was labor, I knew I should wait and see if it progressed, which it did more quickly than the first two times. I called my husband, Matt, to come home, and Sue to come and watch the kids. The doctor said come to his office as soon as I could and he would check things out. Matt and I got there by 12:30 P.M. The doctor said go straight to the hospital, don't stop at admissions. He met us there, and Ariel was born at 1:30 P.M. They said it was a girl, so I asked the nurse to hold the baby up for me to see — just to make sure!
Sue faxed my mom in China, and the whole tour group she was with celebrated with her over the news. She came home the next day and visited us at the hospital.
God cared so much about us that He orchestrated the timing of this event down to the last-minute detail. Every year Ariel and my mom have gone out together to celebrate their mutual birthday. My mom always says that when Ariel was born on her birthday, she knew that, even though she had lost her daughter the year before, God had not forgotten her.
