Luke 1

1. So for the past few weeks, this little phrase keeps going through my mind. For one, my baby boy Luke is now 1. He is my Christmas baby. Last Christmas was a roller coaster of emotions for me. Instead of being induced a week early here, we found out there was an increased risk decided to have him in the valley. Instead of enjoying the rest of my kids and going to all of their programs and recitals, I spent hours on the phone trying to find a doctor who would see me at such short notice, who would deliver at the right hospital, and figuring out how I was going to pay for all of this. Then I had to leave them.

I stayed with Stephanie and spent my time hanging out with my sisters and my neices. The weather was perfect, and I was living by my sisters again, which was a silver lining. I spent every day walking 3 times a day, an hour at a time, until I could not walk another step. I would have contractions, then once I stopped walking they would go away. I would go to my doctor's appointments hoping for an induction plan or for signs of labor, but NOTHING. I would cry. I missed my family. I was scared. What if I went into labor at night and Scott had to drive down icy roads? He gets tired 5 minutes out of town, I was sure he would fall asleep and crash. I was going to have this baby by myself. I was pessimistic. And what if the baby wasn't OK? And we didn't have a name for him.

Finally, I was induced. My 5th child's labor was my longest and most problematic. Is that supposed to happen? He was 8 days overdue. I kept telling him he was going to be in trouble. He was going to be stubborn, I could tell. But he was meant to be here, I knew that. We still didn't have a name.

Another silver lining...Scott's parents were able to come, a first for all of us. His dad gave me a blessing. They held Luke minutes after he was born. He was fine. Maybe that's the reason he was supposed to be born there. Maybe with the problems we both had during the labor, things would have gone differently up here in a small hospital. I don't know. But I do know that once he was born all was right. We got home Christmas Eve.

Oh, and he got a name. By this time all four of my kids were begging us to name him Luke. Scott and I both had other names we liked. But he was a Christmas baby. And they all were begging. So his name was Luke. We love him. And he's spoiled rotten.

2. .......so can I tie in Luke 1? This is where Mary learns of Jesus. There are phrases like "the tender mercy of our God," and "promises" and "covenants." And my favorite, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." I don't know when the last time I read Luke 1 was. But I'm glad for it now.

I think for this year, I will keep "For with God nothing shall be impossible" in my mind. There is a lot going on in the world, and people are trying to make sense of it. I think I will stay positive.

3. Tender mercies. I don't know where to begin. Right now our family has felt the Lord's tender mercies . My cousins came up to visit, some from Australia. Some went riding. Kimberlee rode, things got out of control, and she hit her head on a horse walker. That would be on one of the poles. She cracked her head, fell, and fractured her neck. She lost consciousness. Blood was coming out of her ears. Scott called 911, they ended up wanting to fly her to Phoenix but the weather was horrible. Sometime during this she was given a blessing.

The ambulance took her to Flagstaff in the middle of the night through a snowstorm, where they did surgery to remove the blood from her brain, which had taken up 50% of the space and had compressed her brain that much. They didn't know how she had made it that far, and we were so lucky she was alive. She had come with her husband, 3 month old baby, and friend from Australia to visit her family for a month or so, and had been doing all sorts of fun things, which is how she is. After a successful surgery, the doctors said best case scenario, she might communicate in a week. They wouldn't know the extent of brain damage until she woke up. Gutwrenching.

Within 12 hours of the accident, Kimberlee woke up. She was on a respirator and motioned for a paper to write on. She then wrote back and forth with her family. She was concerned about everyone else!!!! Within hours she was talking. She cracked jokes. Within days she was walking. They let her go home to her parent's in the valley before the week was up. Her baby was so good and easy for others to take care of. Her husband "happened" to purchase travelling insurance which he has never done before. And she can rock the shaved head look. I kid you not. She's hot. And she wanted pictures of the whole thing. She even asked if they had the accident on video. (Just part of it). Kimberlee's amazing. When you talk to her, you would never know this happened. She's positive and funny. And we all love her that much more. You can't understand the whole story until you see her. I'll post pictures.