"her name is sarah"

There came a day one late spring when my son Nathanael decided that his life was not yet complete.  Something was very missing.  Or, rather, some one. 

"Please," he begged his father and me, "I need this person.  Get her for me."

We told him it wasn't the right time.  Conditions were not favorable.  He needed to wait.

But he persisted.  Not a day went by when he did not speak of her.  Finally, I told him he would have to pray about this, because this dream of his was not on our agenda.  Only God, we told him, could work this out for him.

So he prayed.  "Dear Jesus, please give me a baby sister."

He was three years old, and had the undeniable, unshakable faith of a child.

Technically, we were homeless.  We had a place to stay, but not permanently.  Most of our worldly possessions were in storage in another state a full day's drive away.  Tom worked nearly non-stop from seven in the morning till eleven at night because we were trying to save as much as we could so we could join our possessions before fall.  With a preschooler and a toddler, we felt we had enough on our hands at the moment.  Much as we love children, this was not the best time to add a baby.

One month later I got so sick I could hardly function.  Nothing I ate would stay down.  Nothing.  I moaned and groaned on our borrowed couch, overcome with waves of nausea.  I knew the signs.  I'd gone through this before.  Twice, in fact.  I dreaded going through it again, but there was no denying it.

We were having a baby.

Nathanael was just ecstatic when we told him.  Jumping up and down, clapping his hands ecstatic.  He told everyone he knew, and even a few people he didn't.  He wanted to know when she was coming, what her name would be.

"Well," I said, "IF we have a girl," (great emphasis on the word if), "we will call her Sarah."

Nathanael completely ignored the if.  There were no ifs in his thinking.  Not at all.  God had heard his prayer; he was getting his baby sister at long last.

We went to Maranatha that August, and Nathanael met lots of new people.  He quickly learned there were several pieces of information everyone wanted to know, so as the out-going older brother of a rather shy toddler, he took over all the introductions.  And added a bit of extra information no one thought to ask about.

"Hi!  I'm Nathanael, and I'm three.  This is my brother Josiah, and he's one.  And I have a baby sister named Sarah, and she's inside my mommy's belly."

Oh, the looks that generated!  Most people at least had the grace to act excited for his sake, but the sidewise glances I got were...interesting.  :D

Several teenage girls sat down with Nathanael that week, and tried to explain the facts:  Mommy could give you another brother, you know.  What would his name be? 

"I'm not having a brother, I'm having a sister.  And HER name is Sarah."

Then one day in January there was a concern that I might possibly go into early labor.  I didn't, and there was no real cause for alarm, but that day we had a sonogram done.  Which revealed that we were having a boy.

I had caught Nathanael's excitement, and was eagerly anticipating my first daughter.  I was never more disappointed in my life.

I explained to Nathanael that doctors have this machine that can take pictures of a baby before it's born, and that those pictures showed that our baby was a boy.  We would be calling him Christopher.  He listened patiently, then patted my shoulder to assure me:

"It's a girl, Mommy.  Her name is Sarah."

A month later, labor started for real.  In the middle of the night we woke the boys and rushed them to the babysitter's house.  Then we rushed to the hospital, running several red lights in the process.  We got there barely in time.  I was in the hospital maybe 45 minutes when with a loud SMATCH the water balloon broke and our baby entered our world.

"It's a girl!" Tom said, his face radiant with smiles.

I was incredulous.  "It's a girl?  It's a girl?  It's a GIRL?"

A girl.  A glorious daughter.  A dream come true.  A prayer answered.

Of course, Nathanael was not in the least surprised by this news.  Later that day he was heard speaking on the phone:

"It's a girl, Grandma.  The doctor said it was a boy, but it's a girl."

His voice clearly indicated his opinion that doctors are fools.