{rice, beans & love}

3:00 a.m.

I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I yelled for Webert and so it began.

5:00 a.m.

We were checked into the hospital in Sioux Falls.

7:00 a.m.

My epidural had been given and I could breathe again.

11:00 a.m.

I was fully dilated and the nurse told me she wanted me to lie still for one more hour until we started pushing. She excitedly told me my daughter would be here soon.

That’s when the tears started to flow. That’s when the Holy Spirit swept through my delivery room. That’s when I reached out for my husband’s hand and he wiped my tears away.

For months, so many months, we fought so hard for this moment. I spent so many mornings searching for promises in the Word, looking for scripture that would reassure me that God did in fact hear my cries. In bright orange highlighter I have the words “He will reward our faith” written in bold under Matthew chapter seven. My soul would rest on promises made there and some days it would feel like that’s all we had as the future of our family was so unknown.

And at 11:00 a.m. on October 11^th, I felt so fully and truthfully rewarded. All I could say to Webert was “we did it, we actually did it.” We fought the good fight, we persevered, we stayed faithful and we arrived at the end of the battle with more than we could have imagined.

I remember so clearly the moments when I committed my heart to becoming a mama to Jeffte, Loveson and Wishla. Each of them has their own story and the way they came into our families was true divine intervention. God brought them to us and all it took was a moment of faithful commitment in both Webert and my heart. And at 11:00 a.m. on October 11^th was when I recommitted myself to my children, to my husband and to my family once again. My faith grew and my understanding of God’s faithfulness grew all the more deeper.

God is good and He remains faithful to us, but we must also remain faithful to Him.

I would start pushing an hour later and Rubie would arrive at 4:20 p.m. weighing 9 pounds and measuring 21 inches long.

A couple hours after delivery my mom would hand me a Jimmy John’s sub and join my husband on the couch as they would ooh and ahh over the beauty of Rubie Jo. And all things would be okay in our corner of the world. Her bigger siblings would come to meet her for the first time a littler later with aunt Megan and grandpa Dell and all I would say was “we did it” with a deep resounding joy.

Happy one week birthday, Rubie Jo. You are our reward. You are more beautiful than we could have ever imagined and deeply loved by so many.