31 Days: Grandma's Wisdom~ Birth

This post is a part of the 31 Day challenge, to see more of these posts click on THIS link!




(creative liberty taken with details Grandma couldn't remember!)


The year is 1921.  A homestead in Oklahoma. The pains of childbirth seize her body and fear seizes her mind.  It can't be.  No. It's too soon.  This baby can't come yet.  It won't survive!  And yet, the contractions continue signaling the pending birth of this, her third child. I wonder if prayers were uttered, who was called, and who was sent away.  Womb empties and the tiny frail child gives a barely audible cry. I can only imagine the thoughts that pass through her mind as she gazes upon her little girl.  A daughter.  Mother of two boys looks lovingly upon her, covered in vernix, struggling for each breath.  I wonder if in those moments they shared if she dared to let herself hope, to dream, of all the things they might experience together as mother and daughter. Her own mother, a strong Cherokee woman quickly stokes the fire in the wood stove and wraps the premature infant.  She glances around the room and quickly empties a crate of its contents.  Cushioned by blankets that were being prepared for a new babe now used for a purpose not originally imagined.  Carefully opening the oven door, she places babe in front of the warmth.


 "That was my incubator." Grandma says with a smile.


Incubator.  I wonder if they even knew the term in relationship to human babies? I'll never know exactly how those first moments of my Grandmothers life really transpired, but I sometimes think about that day.  The day she came into the world and despite the odds, lived.  This is a part of my story.  A fighter from the very beginning, and a Creator with a plan.  


It's an important part of me sharing with you the wisdom of my Grandma.