About 2 years ago, I became a visiting teacher to a new lady in our ward. She was very shy--her English was heavily accented and made her feel self conscious about speaking to others. She had three little girls under the age of five and I was immediately smitten with them. As time went on she became pregnant and very sick. One time when we were visiting teaching, she spent the entire time wretching into the toilet. She sounded like she was dying. At that point I started taking the girls once a week for a couple of hours so she could get some much needed rest. After some medication and moving into her second trimester she felt well again, but by that time, I was attached to those little girls and so we kept up our weekly visits.
Last Tuesday, I had a hair appointment. It was long overdue and therefore it was going to be a lengthy appointment. Cut, color, the works...but when I walked in and saw another client with her hair in foil, in my chair, I knew that something was wrong. Turns out, my hairdresser had confused the dates. We checked our texts and sure enough, we had agreed on Tuesday but she wrote me in on Thursday. She felt terrible. But I had tons of errands and things to do before school started the next day so I was happy to reschedule for Thursday. I left and starting checking off my to do list. I got home about 3:30--shortly thereafter my home phone rang. It was my friend and she was in labor 4 weeks early. We had agreed that when it was time for the baby to come, I would go get her girls and take care of them while she had the baby. This was that phone call so I headed over. They were all packed and ready to go and she was just waiting for her husband to come home from his own doctor's appointment. She couldn't get a hold of him but was sure he would be home soon. While we talked, she had another contraction and then another...they were about three minutes apart. I assured her I wasn't going to leave until her husband was there and so we waited. She had another contraction, and another, still three minutes apart. Inside, I started to panic. I convinced her to get in my car and we would drop the girls off at my house, then I would drive her to the hospital myself and her husband could meet us there. She agreed. We dropped the girls off and headed to the freeway- her hospital was in Orem. At this point, her contractions were coming about every minute. I knew that wasn't good and I also knew that I could not deliver a baby! I drove like a crazy woman and made it to Timpanogos Regional from my house in 13 minutes. She was wheeled into the labor and delivery room at 4:30, and at 4:39 (it only took that long only because they had to wait for the doctor), she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with one push. Her husband walked into the room AS she pushed. It was amazing.
As I drove home high on the adrenalin of that adventure, I was overwhelmed with the tender mercy of the Lord that day. This friend had recently moved into a new ward. She knew no one and I am about the only friend she has in our area. Had I been sitting at my hair appointment 30 mts. away, without my phone- well, I can't even imagine what she would have done.
God lives and guides our lives. He loves every single one of us and I know He was watching out for my friend that day.
Amen :)
(Cause I realized this sounds like a talk...)
