Which is this:
God gave us a baby.
Three days before Christmas last year, we found out we were pregnant. A miraculous baby boy had just started to grow inside me. Samuel is a gift from God.
Here he is, about an hour old, all tiny and gunky and utterly gorgeous:
It's strange now, on the 'other side', especially having met so many people who don't really know our story. It's quite fun to provoke a reaction by dropping into conversation that it took six years of trying before Samuel came along. People often say, "Yes it took us a while too", and I'm thinking "You know nothing". Which is awful, because however long the wait, it's all heartbreaking, constant waiting and wondering,
But we've met lots of new people this year, none of whom have been on our journey for the last seven years. None of whom have seen the tears and the trauma, only the gorgeous sleeping baby and his tired parents.
Hence the name: Samuel. "Heard of God"
For a long time, I didn't even like the name. When I was pregnant and people would ask us if we'd thought about calling him Samuel, I said I didn't think we would. It seemed a bit predictable. It felt a bit like he was named after this blog!
But when we came to talk together about names, no others matched up. None others conveyed the depth of meaning.
Because Samuel is named after another baby, whose mother waited years and years, who prayed for him and asked God for him. And then named him "Heard of God". Because God heard her prayer.
I don't know how many people were praying for us to get pregnant, but given the number of congratulations cards we received, it definitely runs into the hundreds. (THANK YOU to our wonderful friends and family) I couldn't count the prayers Chris and I have prayed, sometimes in desperation, sometimes with assurance, sometimes just out of habit.
But here is what Samuel is proof of for me:
God answers prayers.
Christmas makes me reflect on our miracle child, because obviously the celebration centres around another much more miraculous baby. Our best friends named their son Simeon, after a Jewish man who was waiting for the Messiah, and knew that it was Jesus when he met him as a baby. Simeon and so many others had prayed and prayed and waited and waited.
And God answered their prayers in the most stunning way, becoming Emmanuel "God with us".
We can testify to two hugely important truths - that God was indeed with us, all through the horrendous times, the despairing times - and that God answer prayers. He has given us such joy, laughter, wonder and love through giving us Samuel. We are so very very grateful.
