This is a guest post by my very good friend Patrick Mcintosh. Please visit his fun and awesome blog.

 

Please read the entire account of Patrick sharing how he and his family experienced the miraculous intervention from God to save both his wife and his daughter from almost certain death had the circumstances been just slightly different.

 

The Birthday Miracle:

 

I love how so many people refer to “the miracle of child-birth.” When people have asked me in conversations about the event and I have said, “it was a miracle…” They nod and smile and keep the conversation flowing. Even when I have said, “No, It was a frigin, real miracle!” people have responded with knowing looks and comments and launch into their own story about their own kid’s birth.

 

This is a brief story about miracles, disguised as coincidences in my life. I believe they are in everybody's life. If you look at them for what they are- God's hand in your life, they can become a huge vehicle for gratitude and further blessings.

 

 

So, April 16^th 2009: The baby, Kaida was two days overdue. My Mother-in-law was visiting and driving us a little crazy. I called in to work and said that I wouldn’t be there. I somehow knew the baby would be born today. I told my wife, Toby and my mother-in-law this.  I had everything ready to go. The car had been on the ready with all the lists double-checked.

 

We went on a walk around the neighborhood and went up a slight hill that will forever be named “Contraction Hill.” Toby felt faint. We were coming to half-way on a loop and we debated on whether to  push on or turn back. We turned around and headed home.

 

We had a routine check-up at Marshal Hospital and we wanted to be in good form and not be rushed. We waddled back, got our things together and drove to the hospital, mother-in-law in tow.

 

 

 

A no-stress test is routine. Toby had three or five already and they are fun, really. There is a heart-rate monitor for the baby and you hear her heartbeat through speakers and there is a readout and you can see the ultra-sound. It is amazing…really! The 5^th time isn’t as amazing as the first so I had found a recliner and a Sports Illustrated and was relaxing. It was a monitor for like 45minutes and 45minutes were about up and the nurse had come and gone a handful of times and said things like, “Everything looks fine!” You ought to go back home now.” “This baby is going to come when she wants to.” “just relax at home….” What followed was a blur, really, but I do recall this:

 

We were getting collected to leave. All the cheerful, benign comments the nurse was making sounded like my life- no worries- pizza tonight- movie, a foot-rub and entertain mother-in-law…then the baby’s heart-rate plummeted. It went from a steady rhythm to a hesitating, weak irregularity. Toby said she felt dizzy and the color left her face.  An alarm went off.  The tone of the nurse turned more sharp and restrained like he was holding back a reaction to yell for help.  The room that was once empty became full with white coats and bustling personnel. A radio squawked and people were rushing about.

 

Our OBGYN Doctor was on duty. She said, “We need to get this baby out right now.” They put the wheels down on the bed that Toby was on and wheeled her out. A nurse took me, half, running behind her, to the operating room. Something was terribly wrong.

 

 

 

I was givin a blue, smock, booties and shower-cap and sat in a wheel-chair, waiting for somebody to put a baby in my arms. Please, God, what is happening?  I called my mom and said an Our Father. A nurse at the station began to cry and her colleagues consoled her. She said that this had reminded her of her daughter and the birth of her grandchild. From the look of grief and terror on her face, I judged the birth didn’t end up with a live baby or daughter or both? I sat and fumbled…the nurses asked their crying colleague to take a lunch break and go get some air. They new she was scaring me.  Here’s what the doctors told us after:

 

A placental abruption: It’s rare- usually happens with mothers who have used drugs and other strange times. It is not really understood. What happens is the placenta pulls off the wall of the uterus and it can be fatal for mother and baby if you are not close to or inside of a hospital. The baby loses its supply of oxygen and the mother can bleed to death in a matter of minutes.

 

We were told to leave the hospital. We were going to get in the car and drive down highway 50 for 20 minutes. Instead, God had us in a delivery room, under the watch of a swarm of doctors and nurses with a monitor on the baby’s heart rate.

 

Above the din of the operating-room hall, the shriek of a baby rang out. She was alive! Seconds later, she was in my arms and somebody was wheeling me down the hall to the neo-natal wing and Kaida was looking up at me with big blue eyes and a swath of strawberry-blonde hair. All perfect like a cherub. Perfect round head. All fingers and toes, responding like a perfect newborn… Toby was under anesthesia and would be alright. I would see her when she woke up.

 

I felt like a giant Greyhound bus was headed right at our house and at the last moment, it swerved away. Coincidence? I like the term, "God-incidence." What kind of co-incidences have you had in your life? Can you begin to realise these as God-incidences? If you can, and begin to give thanks, gratitude can begin to take root in you and in my opinion, grace is the place where blessings flow from.

 

Patrick

 

 

I believe God's heart is especially tender in regards to child birth. In the coming days I may share a story or two of our 6 births and how God miraculously intervened in some of ours births as well…most specifically when our twins were born at home.

 

Anyhow…please share your own stories or "God-incidences" as Patrick calls them, or your thoughts or whatever. I would love to hear from you.

 

Many Blessings,