Author: Wick

I was ready.

There I stood, pen and notebook in hand; every contraction from the past 4 hours written down on paper. All the signs were there. They had started at 6 minutes apart, and moved all the way to 2 minutes apart, and stayed consistent for the past 2 hours. All the signs were there. Time to move. We headed home, grabbed the bags that were already packed and by the door, called the doctor, and headed to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, they hooked Sarah up to the monitors and we saw that we were right; contractions every 2 minutes consistently. This is it. All the signs are there. Addison is coming.
She didn’t come that night. After contracting for 2 more hours, and being tested, the nurses told Sarah and I that perhaps this was a “false labor”. Addison was not coming when we thought. We would have to wait. We could wait there at the hospital, or go home on our own. But either way, we had to wait.
It was tempting to stay at the hospital. It was tempting to go home and sit on our hands, waiting for any more signs that Addison had decided to come. Unfortunately, all the experts say that’s one of the worst things you can do. So what do they recommend? Live your life as normal as possible. Remember Addison is coming, and allow your life to point towards that, but don’t give up living to worry about it. Continue to prepare for her.
As frustrating as this all was, it’s given me one stellar illustration for a sermon. And I’m gonna let it out here, so if I preach and use this…pretend you’ve never heard it.

It’s the year 2006. War is once again heated up in the Middle East. Leaders of Nations are rising and falling. Earthquakes, floods, and other large events are spreading suffering and destruction. All the signs are there. Funny, this sounds familiar.
The truth is, all the signs have been there time after time after time. From those who read Revelation as a timeline to Armegeddon, all the way to those who think Jesus is gonna come back in a limousine (not many people hopefully), people have been watching to try and figure out when God will usher in His Kingdom. 100AD, 1000AD, 2000AD, Nero, Hitler, the fall of Rome, the Soviet Union, the Y2K crisis, and many events in between these have been looked at before their occurance as “God’s return”. All the signs were there. Thoughts like these spark great living, but also dangerous living.

If Sarah and I had stayed at the hospital that night, fully expecting Addison’s arrival, we would still be there 3 days later. Instead, we went home, and lived our lives in continued preparation for her.
To hope and pray for God to usher all of creation into His Kingdom is an incredible thing. To forget to live this life because we hope He will come tomorrow is a misuse of all we’ve been given. As His creation, we have been in the birth pangs of the Coming Kingdom for centuries. We have had many “false labors”, and the truth is, we will probably have many more. Does that mean we go home, and forget that God is even coming? Not at all!!! It would have been easy to be so disappointed, that we went home, and pretended we weren’t even having a baby. But then what? Addison would’ve come anyway, and we wouldn’t have been ready at all.

Instead, we realize we’ve been given more time to prepare!!! Friends, we HAVE been given more time to prepare this world for the Coming Kingdom of God. Maybe days, maybe weeks, years, maybe even millennia. But that doesn’t negate the fact that God IS returning! He has given us that promise throughout scripture. We find just one of the many references in Acts chapter 3:

“…that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets…”

So here we are with a choice. What can we do to prepare for His arrival? What can you do this week? What can you do with your life? The answer is: LIVE IT. A statement I heard when I was in college put these things in a great perspective for me. If God doesn’t bring His completion until the year 10,000; the years we’re living right now will be seen as the “beginning” of Christianity. How are we affecting the world from that perspective? Are we? Or are we sitting at the hospital, doing nothing with our life, just hoping God will come tonight?

So this is how it is right now. We can only see the bottom of the timer. We’re not sure how much is left in the top section….but we know the bottom section is getting pretty full.

Man, if it’s this intense for me….I can’t imagine what my wife is actually experiencing. Know that yeah…we’ve scheduled induction for Friday morning at 7:30am….but that really, Sophie could come any time she chooses. There may be fair warning….there may not. 🙂

Sunday night, there was a moment around 2am that we thought it was time. But it turned out not to be. Just like with Addison, only this time we didn’t rush to the hospital. The result was the same though….it was a quick kick in the pants for me to finish getting ready the things I had been putting off. (baby seat, packing, getting a new tape for the camera, etc…)

SO….I figured it was an appropriate time to repost my blog from just prior to Addie….about False Labor….

Sarah and I have taken a big step forward in our experience as parents. Last night, we were getting ready to watch “LOST” on TV…sitting around with some family, about to put Addison down for the night…when it happened.

You know that sound that comes from the end of a hose, when you turn on the faucet, and it gurgles all the way to the open end? Imagine that sound coming from an 18 month olds’ mouth….followed by the source of that noise, a hefty serving of fresh vomit.

In the milliseconds that followed, I experienced a myriad of emotions: shock, humor, disgust, upset, love, pity (for Sarah and her outfit), duty, empathy, frustration, helplessness (how do you hold a puking 18-month old? how can I help her?) , etc. As I responded without thinking, grabbing Addison, holding her as if she wasn’t vomiting….to comfort her as I took her into the bathroom, to finish her self-evacuation in the tub.

Oh man…our daughter no longer has the cute baby spit-up. That stuff was awesome compared to this. Give me a shirt with spit-up all over it, compared to one spot of this. And the smell? Oh man. We’re lighting candles all over the place.

So anyways, we responded well…cleaned up…figured out how to comfort Addie through the night, responding each time she began to gag again. The laundry is being done, and Addison is finally keeping fluids down this morning. Hopefully Sarah gets a chance to nap when Addison takes one this afternoon.

We’ve got our dishwasher installed (Thanks Wheel of Fortune!!), and are almost done getting Sophie’s room and the house ready. 🙂 Lent is going well….but I’ve decided it’s okay for me to read books to Addison, even though I’ve given them up until Easter.