Praying for a baby...

Recently I shared my testimony with my church, and it seems like a fitting place to start. My parents were separated right after I was born and officially divorced when I was two. I was not “knowingly” baptized as a child. (my father’s mother may have had my brother and I baptized, which doesn’t surprise me!) 

I grew up in a Unitarian church with my mom, and The Catholic church when visiting my dad.  At a Catholic service with my dad I almost gave my step-grandmother a heart attack doing the sign of the cross with the left hand instead of right. I think it is the sign of devil or something, who knew???

Fast forward to being happily married with a beautiful 6-week old child and after seeing that little miracle, it was time to go to church! So we went to a church across the street and were received by a wonderful congregation of elderly folks eager to show us some love.  Not having family of our own in town, it was a perfect fit.

Unbeknown to us, at that same church, a wonderful lady, Belle, had been sitting in the church nursery for six months by herself each Sunday.  She sat and prayed for a baby to come to the church. Well, she prayed and we arrived. Belle was a little upset with me though because I was quite the neurotic first time mom and wouldn’t leave our baby in the     nursery with her… at least for the first couple months. 

We later joined that church, (Grace United Methodist Church) in Savannah, GA, and on my 30th birthday I was baptized there, as well as our first child. It was a wonderful start for my little family in understanding the importance of the church and a church family. I also learned that church people are “normal” too. And because I was “officially a Christian”, I wasn’t expected to be perfect, or be just like anyone else. That Faith wasn’t a thing, but a Journey.

I became friends with the pastor, Brother Eric, and his wife, Carol, and we often had refreshing, candid conversations as my year old daughter would take all the books off the shelf in his office, one by one. They forgave me when I made homemade chicken pot pie and Brother Eric had a mild heart attack after he left that evening… I also learned about the painful loss of their young son Jonathon to a brain tumor on May 19th, 1982.  

While at Grace, I collaborated on a wonderful VBS that had almost 60 kids, the prior year there were only 10. It was a huge success, and just what this stay-at-home mom’s confidence needed, a match made in Heaven! But it wasn’t until 9 years later, when I was writing down my thoughts  to share my testimony, that I realized the importance of Belle faithfully praying each Sunday for a baby.