Gender Reveal, God's Reveal

A little over a week ago now, on February 18, Ray and I hosted a "Gender Reveal Party" with the help of our terrific family. For those of you who don't know, a Gender Reveal party is quite simple--it is a fun way to discover the sex of your baby-to-be with close friends and family. An intimate gathering, and an excuse to get together and celebrate. But in His perfect grace, as always, God had so much more to reveal.

In spite of some of the controversy I have read in the blogosphere regarding having parties for such an event, we decided it was how we wanted to reveal and celebrate, and were very blessed for doing so. It was so touching to see the close friends and family who were just as excited to find out with us, and then to celebrate with us the gender of our little chickpea. There were many who couldn't make it and requested pictures and texts as soon as the reveal was made. It truly defines the meaning of family--those who celebrate your successes and mourn your losses with you--because they want to. Family celebrates you out of no obligation other than love.

We decided for our big reveal to take an envelope in which the sonographer had written the gender to Party City, and asked them to fill a provided box with helium balloons of the corresponding color: pink for a girl, blue for a boy. We chose the theme from an old rhyme, "Sugar and Spice and everything nice, that's what girls are made of. Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what boys are made of." We additionally asked each guest to dress in pink or blue to show what they predicted the gender to be.

We had about 95% of the party predicting a boy--including the parents; only three came dressed for the girl, so imagine our surprise when pink balloons came out! I don't have the picture of candid shot of our guests, but it's priceless--four mouths wide open and the rest smiling big. I, who was expecting a boy with my whole heart and mind (see my face?!), was pleasantly surprised. Even a mother's instinct is no match for God's plan.

But as we wound down and only family were left, we began to talk about just how elaborately a simple celebration as this can demonstrate the wonder of God. He knows best. And only He knows at all! We may, with all of the best intentions, think we understand or have figured out what to expect, whether it be through instinct, research, statistics, and even prayer, we become certain that we know what is coming, what God has in store, or what He is creating. The beauty of this is the surprise when God reveals to us what He has been leading us to or preparing us for. Sometimes this surprise may be unpleasant (such as losing a job), and sometimes it may be a wonderful miracle (e.g., the defeat of cancer). But God is continuing to prepare us and ready us for His wonder and plan...He has so much in store. And I believe He delights when we take so much pleasure in discovering and celebrating His surprises, because deep inside we know that it's all working out for Him.

Sitting in Awe

There is something about pregnancy that brings me to my knees in awe of God's amazing design. Maybe it's the 10 hours the sperm has to pursue the egg (that could be a whole separate post!), or the 30 hours for the two to combine, or the 3-4 day trip it takes to get to the uterus, become a blastocyst, and burry into the uterine lining. Who knows...maybe its even that after it's a ball of 16 little cells, it turns into a baby. Yikes!

I remember watching this video when I first discovered I was pregnant that outlined the first 8 or 9 weeks of pregnancy. And as tears came to my eyes, all I could think was, how can people not believe in God? If I didn't already find it in nature, or the multiple events in my life that only could be orchestrated by a higher being, pregnancy has been a hands-down confirmation that God is incredible and knowing and pretty darn smart.

Not that I didn't already know that.

During my 15th week, I was unfortunate enough to experience the ever-dreaded cold--in pregnancy, this is increased ten-fold by your inability to take anything and the feared fact that a simple cold can turn into sinus infections, bronchitis, or worse, pneumonia or flu. I had known that during pregnancy, my immune system was lowered, making me much more susceptible not just to catching the cold, but to it turning into much more. I guess I just attributed this to the fact that my body was working to create the baby, and other things went left on the back burner, as often happens in times of high stress or after surgery. During my search of natural remedies, I stumbled across a trivia fact: when you become pregnanct, your body compromises its own immune system in order to keep your own antibodies from attacking and destroying the fetus.

How cool is that?

Sometimes I think I underestimate God. My body's decreased immune system is not reactive to the pregnancy...it's proactivity at its finest! How much more peaceful I would be if I took that into account on a daily basis and reminded myself that God is more interested in preventing disaster than in helping me get through it. Of course, if I encounter a trial based on my own human error or tendency to desire to take things into my own hands or just the nature of life, He will be there, hand's down, to help/guide/carry me through. But how much easier would it be if I summoned all of that trust into believing that He has my best in mind, and doesn't want me to go through valleys or fall into pits any more than I do. He wants me to get it the first time!

Now that's love.