Gift of Life

The last couple of weeks have been very expectant ones for me and my little Daisy. Gestation in dogs is actually a fairly predictable amount of time, but there can be so many different factors in a given pregnancy: the mamma’s genetics, size of the litter, how comfortable she is in her environment, even right down to the exact time fertilization took place. The very earliest date I thought she could be due was January 23rd, but thought it was also possible she would hold out until the 24th or 25th. Honestly, she had been acting so “ready” I was really surprised when she not only made it until her first due date, but that it wasn’t until this morning that she started to show visible signs of labor.

I’m typing this blog post out as I sit here near her bed, ready to help or comfort her if she needs me to, but otherwise trying to stay quiet and out of her personal space. Zoe and Oliver are here with us too, just chilling out and checking in on her every once in a while. My younger siblings keep popping their heads in at the door with “Any puppies yet?” Her labor could easily last for another few hours still, and I keep reminding myself that “the art of midwifery is knowing how to wait.”

Every new litter I get renews in me a sense of how precious the gift of life is. We live in such a upside-down world in which life just isn’t important to many people. There are cultures around the globe that throw away babies who are not a preferred gender, governments that allow only a limited amount of children in a family, and even our own “nation under God” which endorses and promotes the practice of aborting unborn children.

I’m not interested in joining in the politics of whether or not an unborn fetus has rights of her own. It’s hard for me to even believe that the debate has come to this point, and the fact that it has has caused my faith in humanity to drastically decrease.

My only comfort in situations like this is the fact that I know our Father sees and loves each and every child in this world, whether or not he/she gets to breathe outside of the womb. Over and over again he says he will protect and comfort his little ones, and their lives are precious in his sight. He *will* bring about justice for every child who is a victim of something he/she cannot prevent. He sees and he knows.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  ~Psalm 139:13-16

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror. ~Psalm 10:17-18

Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.  ~Psalm 27:10

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. ~Matthew 10:28-31