On Going Past Your Due Date…

As a former doula, I know that due dates are somewhat arbitrary and really we should just treat them as a range of when baby can be expected to arrive. However, as an expectant mother, it really messes with your mind and heart when you surpass that all important expected due date that everyone keeps asking about. You start to feel like you’re falling behind. Like you’re late. Like you’re doing it wrong or not doing all that you should.

I’ve been having moments of anxiety the past few days and last night was up from 2:45-4am (not exactly something you want to be doing days before welcoming a newborn, let me tell ya), worried about when labor was going to start, if labor was going to start at all, if I’m going to be the first person in history to be pregnant forever, and what more I could be doing to help things along.

But then I just started praying and worshipping. Asking the Holy Spirit to help me surrender control. To trust in His perfect timing. To trust my body and my baby.

I imagine this will be a lifelong lesson within motherhood for me. How do you completely surrender your little one, whom you love more than anything, to the Lord and trust God’s will and purpose for their life? How do you surrender when leaving them with a babysitter for the first time? Or when dropping them off at school that first day, hoping they make friends? Or when watching them drive off alone with their newly minted drivers license? Or when dropping them off and driving away from their college campus? Or when {fill in the blank with any of the many terrifying moments to come}?

Earlier this year on Mother’s Day, I reflected on one of the many paradoxes of motherhood: wanting your child to stay little forever, while also being proud of their growth. On this day, I’m reflecting on another paradox: wanting to control, care for, and keep your child close forever, while also knowing you can’t and therefore surrendering and trusting their life over to the One who can. #40weeks

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Announcing: Cora Florence Nelson

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Mother’s Day 2023