A Christmas to Remember, by Evelyn Watson

I hope you had a very special Christmas with your loved ones yesterday. Now that the celebration has passed, take a few minutes to relax and read about another Christmas from many years ago. Here is a story about a day that changed the lives of Evelyn and her husband Dwight forever. Those of us who are parents understand that having a child transforms your life like nothing else can. Evelyn’s experience is especially memorable because it happened on Christmas Eve.  

 

Children are a heritage of the Lord

Psalms 127:3

 

The tree was decorated and presents wrapped; I had done all to be ready. We were all waiting for that moment to happen when we would become parents and our parents would become grandparents. It was the time when no one knew the sex of their baby before being born, but somehow I knew the tiny life within me was a girl and chose only one name.

When the time came to go, a thick blanket of wet fog covered us in eerie silence as we inched our way to the hospital at 2:00 a.m. Dwight drove slowly with his door open to follow the street’s center line. We were on our way to parenthood, a challenge our young lives had not yet encountered, and we had no idea of life’s journey beyond that night. I was convinced we were ready when Tracy entered our lives the previous Christmas, yet she was not chosen in God’s plan to be part of our family.

St. Frances Hospital in Lynwood was an excellent one. I was secure in their care; not afraid of labor or delivery. I had been healthy the entire nine months and was able to work at the phone company seven of those months. I did not realize Dwight’s nervousness. When he left the labor room after appearing briefly and never coming back I had no idea what he was going through, involved in my own experience. For me time passed quickly and the pangs of a birth about to happen never raged as expected.

Arriving at 6:38a.m., on the moon change following her due date of December 14, Lori Lynnett, was born on December 21, weighing 8lb. 9oz. (“If a baby does not arrive on its due date, it will on the next moon change”, I was told, and she did) I was allowed to watch her entrance into the world coming through me but not from me. Her tiny body was perfect. My prayer during pregnancy was for my baby to have hair. She had more hair than I ever imagined. Giving birth was the most thrilling experience of my entire life and it started the first time I felt a movement of life within.

After three days Lori and I came home from the hospital. It was Christmas Eve morning. She was our gift to share with friends and family. She led the way into our parenthood. Our lives were forever changed. It truly was a Christmas to remember.