...my very youngest brother, Ben!!! Today is his 7th birthday!!!
Being the oldest of nine children, I sometimes (OK, oftentimes!) forget my siblings' birthdays, but Ben's birthday will always be firmly etched in my mind. You see, something really cool happened on his actual BIRTH-day...
Well, actually, it goes back further than that, nine months to be exact. In mid-April of 2001, my then-fiancé and I broke off our engagement. The very next morning, while crying together, my mom confided in me another unexpected turn of events: she was expecting Baby Number Nine. She was less-than-excited at first. She'd been hoping to leave the childbearing season of life and enter into a season of mother-in-law-hood and future grandmotherhood. But God (as always) had other plans ; )
In the midst of my pain and heartbreak, God provided me a ray of hope; the promise of a new little life to join our family. That baby became a Baby of Hope for me during the next nine months. I just knew that with his birth God would bring something wonderful. HOW wonderful, I had no clue. Amidst the scramble of gathering things together for Ben's impending arrival, I remember passing the computer on one of my mad dashes through the dining room. I clicked the "Get Mail" button to see if there was any urgent news to pass on to either of my parents... like anything could be more urgent than a baby in a hurry to see the world!
The only e-mail to pop onto the screen was from a young man who had been the topic of much conversation in the past few weeks. A young man who I'd only heard of, not from. And even now, I was not to hear from him since the e-mail came into my dad's inbox, not mine. But it was far from the time to be dwelling on e-mails from young men. I had a new sibling coming who was not waiting for anything, not the midwife and certainly not his big sister's musings on seemingly too-good-to-really-exist eligible young men! So off I rushed to be of whatever assistance I could, leaving that e-mail to sit in my dad's inbox until another less crazy hour. That hour did finally arrive, but not until after my new little brother had made his grand (and hurried) entrance into this world. The rest, as they say, is history. I need only glance at my husband reading our son a bedtime story or at our two children trekking around the backyard to be reminded of the special gift God gave me with the birth of my baby brother. Almost like the gift He bestowed on all humanity with the birth of His own son; a gift of hope and a future.
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