What do we do when we are waiting for a baby? For years I’ve heard the comparison that waiting for a newborn is similar to waiting for direction for what The Lord has in store. It seems like a long wait, but when the baby arrives there is joy and the waiting was worth it all.

This is the first of a three day series about Mother’s Day. These thoughts came because of recent events and I decided to share them in one fell swoop. This post was written on March 12, 2014.

Thoughts are running through my brain because I am waiting. Waiting for a lot of things to happen in my life, but also waiting for a baby, Molly and Matt’s baby, our first grandson. Today we learn that the baby was ready to be born. The due date was three days ago, but Julie, our favorite OB is on Spring break with her family. At their last appointment, Julie said that Molly wasn’t ready to deliver. She said that Molly might be able to wait another week for her to get back from her Beaver Creek getaway, as she had one foot out the door to the ski slopes. Today (five days later) we go to the hospital to make sure that all is okay to wait these extra days. I loved seeing my first sonogram: the four chambers of the heart, kidneys, bladder, everything special about my genius grandson. During my pregnancies we never had sonograms unless there was a problem. It was great to see what everyone was getting excited about all these years. The young doctor, Laura, came in to check our baby. All looked good but the fluid had gotten low so this little fella needed to make his entry. This young doctor shared a profound parenting principle, “This will not be the first time that your son does not do what you want!” Molly wants to avoid a C-section so we will see how that goes. Right now I am sitting at the Mexican restaurant across the street from their house eating the enchilada special. We waited from noon to 5:00 pm which is the time they are to check into the hospital. It was a day of waiting. I kept thinking of the game, “If you only have five hours left to live, what would you do?” Well, we have lots to live for, but if you had five hours left before your life changed forever with one special individual, what would you do?

We had already scheduled lunch with our friend Sally, at the Corner Market. There were a couple of detours before we met her. Of course! There was a full 30 minutes. A stop by the house led to a rush of packing, cleaning and washing. Molly has organized her whole life and ours since she was three years old and of course most of the house was in order. Molly saw all my nervousness so she handed me a can of Pledge and the vacuum knowing it would work off a little energy. We all got about our special duties and this helped. Check. Of course yesterday Molly and Matt found out that they were going to have to move out of their adorable rental house because it had sold. (This is what every young couple is signing up to do with a newborn, especially when you have your present house looking really great!) Before we went to see Sally we go look at a duplex that was being remodeled. It’s less than a mile away from their present house. Twenty minutes was spent here and guess what? It looked great and they thought that this could be checked off their list. Check. We went to lunch and ate and talked as if it were any other day. The doctor said Molly should eat a good lunch. We wondered if the three salads that she had eaten qualify as a good and hearty lunch. Sally expressed concern at first, but the rest of us agreed that Molly has stored up enough with her insatiable appetite these last weeks. She ordered an everything cookie which made us all happy. Check. Molly had scheduled a prenatal massage at 2 which was covered by insurance and I don’t mean Obama Care . (Doesn’t this seem like a good choice for the last five hours before you go to the hospital?) Matt and I were let loose for an hour and he graciously offered to go to the Verizon store with me to get my new phone. Every grandmother needs a perfect working phone and camera. This filled up an hour of our time as we got everything up to date. Check. We have one hour left before they need to leave for the hospital. Clothes folded. Check. Shower taken. Check. Remove old nail polish and on with the new. Molly debated about going with one of the two neutrals or the trendy purple. We decided that the purple might be a point of concern in later years when baby McFarland thinks that someone has tied rubber bands around his mother’s fingers or that her blood pressure must have dropped to a terrible low. Check. Take Bates, the dog, out of the car because he sees all the baby paraphernalia and luggage in the car and thinks it must be time for another cross country trip. Check. Take Bates on a walk so he doesn’t think he is being replaced, even though he is. Check. I take a run because I am not sure when I will be called for my grandmotherly, motherly duties. Check. Now I sit eating a basket of chips and enchiladas. Check.

Waiting. Waiting for an answer. Waiting for direction. Waiting for a baby. We do not stop breathing or living our life at the moment just because we are waiting. There is a lesson in the waiting, a lesson in the doing and being while we are waiting. This is something where we are not in control. There is a bigger picture than eating lunch, finding a home, getting a massage and shower and walking a a dog and yet they are important as we hold onto what the real prize, lesson, answer and baby will be. It is not wasted as we seek Jesus in all of this. David speaks truth in the Psalms:

“I wait for The Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope.”
Psalms 130:5. (NIV)

Lord as I sit here looking at this empty basket of chips, I wait for you. I put my hope in you as I wait for the arrival of this next generation.

“Yet The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For The Lord is a God of Justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)