Waiting in Hope, Expectation, Irritation, and Frustration

Hello, friends.

You're probably assuming that there's a new baby in our house, since I've been MIA from the blog for nearly a week.

Nope, not yet.

I've been absent here because I've just generally been feeling lousy (food doesn't stay down any longer...) and sleeping a whole lot (but at weird hours - I'm up for most of the night, and then finally fall asleep from 8am - noon...).

I feel like I have the flu, but one that has lasted two weeks and isn't helped by tea and rest and fluids. There's only one cure, and that's having this baby. But for now, I wait.

At our last doctor's appointment our wonderful midwife hooked baby and me up to a fetal monitor and told me what I already knew--that I'm having minor to significant contractions all the time ("No wonder you're tired!") and that the baby is very low. So I could go into labor at any time, any minute, but I haven't yet.

As soon as we have news, you'll know.

For now, for your entertainment, a list of all those who have gone into labor before me in the past month...

1. Every other patient at my doctor's office who was due in September. Many of them 2-3 weeks early. At our last appointment the receptionist greeted me with, "You're still here, are you?" Soooo unhelpful...

2. Nick and Vanessa Lachey.

3. Melissa Joan Hart.

4. Adriana Lima.

--Celebrity photos all borrowed from People Magazine.

5. A high school friend of mine who was due three weeks later than I am.

6. The panda at the National Zoo (and pandas never even HAVE babies... it's like a once-in-20-years kind of a deal). The panda was the last straw. After that I stopped reading the news.

--Panda baby photo borrowed from Now Public.Com

Any day now, right?

I spent a long time yesterday reading passages from Isaiah about the new heavens and the new earth. I'm preaching a series this Advent on the double-meanings of the season - preparing to celebrate Jesus' birth and waiting in hope for his second coming.

There were over four hundred years between the Old and New Testaments, yet the people of God were told that their Messiah was coming "soon."

There have been over two thousand years between Christ's resurrection and today, yet in Revelation Jesus tells us that he is coming "soon."

Methinks God's timing and our timing are two different things.

So as I return to doctor's appointment after doctor's appointment and hear, as I've been hearing for the past six weeks, "Your baby is coming soon!" I am learning to remember that I am in very good company as I wait.

Waiting produces perseverance. It also, if you are me, produces irritation and frustration. I am not good at waiting.

So as I wait, I'm ruminating on Isaiah 65 and Luke 1 and 2 and Revelation 22. Jesus will come soon. Baby will come soon.

And in the meantime, I will continue to learn to just be. Moment by moment. Day by day.

Sigh...

C'mon, baby!