MIRACLE BABY IS A SM-ASHER!
Everyone at NLC was delighted when Hannah announced that she and husband Damian were expecting their first child. What most of us didn't realise was the story behind her joy until she shared her story with the whole church a couple of Sunday's ago. Last year they had the delight of discovering Hannah was pregnant twice then the heartbreak of two miscarriages.
Hannah readily confessed she had struggled with her faith at that point to understand why God would allow it to happen. Her pain was bottled up and shared with just her closest friends and it was a horrible time for them as a couple. She said she wished she had done then, what she later did, in sharing it with the church leaders and church family so that she could have been comforted and supported. But it's not easy to share when the emotions and pain are so raw.
She enjoyed her pregnancy and they were both so looking forward to meeting their baby boy. 'I now know why they call it 'labour', Hannah said talking about the delivery as baby Asher was born. His name means happy or blessed and that about sums up how they feel about him.
Bleary eyed and exhausted she wondered why the midwife was insisting that she look at the placenta. There in the umbilical cord was a knot - the midwife called it a 'true knot'. She told her that when there is such a knot it takes a miracle for the baby to survive the delivery, they very rarely did. Their baby was their own little miracle.
Dad calls him 'Smasher' and 'miracle baby' and although at the moment they just wish he would spend a little more time asleep at night they are enjoying family life together.