I am grateful for the the gift of Peace that the Lord has instilled in me.  As Sarah Young describes it in her Jesus Calling devotional, "a gift of such immense proportions that you cannot fathom its depth or breadth."  For as long as I could remember, I did not live in peace, instead I internally lived in fear, shame, anger, sadness, anguish, resentment, etc.  It wasn't until I made the choice to live for Christ that I truly understood what it meant to exist in a peaceful state of being.  So when I heard the hospital nurse on speaker phone advise my wife to wait another 2 hours before we drove to the hospital (and we had to call and get permission first) to ensure that the contractions were constant and that her pain was immense, it didn't give me anxiety.  My peaceful self thought, "Yeah right, we are not waiting that long with her contractions being 2-3 minutes apart!" So as I heard my wife's breathing begin to increase and her pain grow stronger, I decided to continue timing the contractions for another 30 minutes to have some concrete data, and then we would start our 45 minute drive to the hospital, in the pouring rain.

One of the aspects I love about my wife is how she surprises me with her growth and wisdom.  I always perceived myself as the more organized one, the more experienced one, the more resourceful one, and it is very humbling when I see these strengths growing in action within her.  A few days before going into labor, my wife had pulled me aside to have me watch the "Slow Dance" video on the Baby Center App, you can view it at minute 2:21 here:
https://www.babycenter.com/2_pregnancy-massage-for-labor-pain_10413818.bc

Honestly, I laughed at the thought of doing this, but we tried it and it was amusing, but I never imagined actually applying it during labor.  So when I saw how hard she was breathing and verbally expressing pain as she paced back and forth in the living room, I asked, "Why don't you come sit down on the couch with me and rest?"  She replied, "I will, I am just trying to walk around to ease the pain."  It was then that I remembered our funny moment of trying it out this technique and I quickly said, "Come here, let's try this." So we swayed, left right, left right, left, right, as I heard her breathe in and out in pain.  When she would breathe out the contraction I would put pressure in her lower back with my fingers as the video suggested.  I am not sure I provided much relief, she will be able to tell you when she starts writing, but I sure remember it as a very tender moment and in my head I was thanking God that he was guiding us through this process.

Something that has changed in my life dramatically is meditation through prayer.  As I have grown older, I have understood the importance of forming healthy habits to cope with stress, challenges, life in general, and none has been more powerful in my life than finding peace through prayer.  As I was ensuring that all we needed was in the car, my wife asked me if we should call the hospital because at our labor and delivery orientation they let us know not to call until you were truly in constant pain and your contractions were close to each other.  Well, I remembered that the Baby Center App had this handy dandy tool called the Contraction Timer, so every time she started hurting, I would start the timer and push it again when she stopped hurting.  The literature and the doctors tell you that you shouldn't go to the doctor until your contractions are occurring every 4-5 minutes and have lasted for at least 2 hours, or they will send you back home (I have never seen that happen in the movies!) Well, here was my wife's timer, give or take a few seconds of error.  I will give you a few seconds to analyze and process:

Are you making the same connection I was making that delivery eve?  Clearly, the answer to my wife's question, "Should I call the hospital?"  was, in my strong yet supportive tone, "Absolutely babe.  Your contractions have been every 2-3 minutes since you started, and just so you know, I wasn't serious about performing an emergency delivery in the car." Yes, I watched YouTube videos to prepare me in case I had to deliver JJ in the car. LOL Remember, when I said I like to be pro-active?  Well, I even bought an emergency delivery kit to go in the hospital bag, just in case.  You never know, right?  The drive to the hospital was 45 minutes with heavy traffic every single time we went in for a check-up, and finding a parking space in the structure at the hospital reminded me of college when I had to hunt down people, stalk them, and wait until they left their spot for me to zoom in before anyone else could beat me to it.  We even had identified spots of interest that were on the main street like McDonald's where I would be ok delivering JJ, in an emergency. One day, my wife had pointed out that there was a Del Taco on the right-handside of the street, and I was like, "no, never in a Del Taco parking lot."  I have standards, you know? LOL

So as she called the hospital nurses, I started cleaning the house, taking all the trash out, washing the leftover dishes, preparing our puppy to remain in the master shower where he would have plenty of space to lay out and go potty if he needed to.  While going into robotic mode in getting everything accomplished swiftly, I started praying: "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, AMEN." 🙏