So - wouldn't you know that when I am thinking of unexpected blessings I could find one that has the word EXPECTING in it.May 1971 - already a very difficult year that I won't share the details of - just believe me it was hard. Things were not just right so one of the women in our small country church in Bakewell, Tennessee told me I should go see her doctor, an OB-GYN.
"Is it fun to have a baby?", I asked.
"It's exciting", was his response.
What he should have said is "it's a blessing". For so it was, 44 years ago on Thanksgiving night that I knew I was in labor. I remember I thought - History is repeating itself. I knew that on November 26, 1901 my great grandmother, Marianna Michau Mercer, had given birth to her last child, a daughter she would name Iva Pauline. And here I was about to give birth to my first.
Was my baby going to be born on my grandma Nesmith's 70th birthday? She had died in May of that year - just 10 days after I learned that I was "EXPECTING".
Grandma's death was one of the things that had made the Spring of 1971 difficult for me. My mother told me that she went to grandma's grave on November 26th. I lived in Chattanooga so she had no idea that I was in labor but she said as she brushed some leaves from the marker that day, she was aware that new life was coming.
Rebecca Lynn was born at 4:53 that afternoon.
Becca has always been glad that her name is not Rebecca Pauline (however, now I think Pauline Rebecca would have been a great name). She never knew Grandma Nesmith, however as I watch her as a mother and a teacher, not to mention friend, sister and aunt, I think she is like her. Why? Becca has a great capacity to love others.
And although at the time it seemed like almost a disaster - that I was going to have a baby - I can tell you without reservation - Rebecca Lynn is the greatest UNEXPECTED BLESSING in my life!
And that little Becca is my First Born Gandchild who has recippricted my love to her through all of these years.
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