Oh, That Special Moment

Can you pinpoint that one moment in your life—that one you can immediately jump back to and say, “That was my happiest moment”?

Mine was at the birth of Aaron, our first-born son. I had come to believe that I would never have children—two miscarriages from my failed marriage twelve years earlier was proof of that.

But on July 1^st, 1985, at thirty-six years of age, I held my Aaron Nathan in my arms for the first time. It was all so surreal. I pinched myself so many times that I think I actually started bruising. God was so merciful. Labor lasted only three hours—from the very first at home to delivery at the hospital. The pain of childbirth passed quickly and was soon forgotten. Aaron’s pink wrinkled and scaly head was beautiful to me. It was much later when Larry and I looked at pictures that we realized this scrawny little six-pounder resembled a naked chicken you would get from the grocer. We wondered if our friends thought we were crazy when we talked about our boy who was perfect in every way.

But oh—that joy that raced through my veins when I saw him. I shook all over with excitement. Every square inch of my body tingled. I was giddy, and I cried and laughed at the same time. The nurse placed the naked bundle in my arms and as I cradled him in my warmth, Larry stood over us, holding both my hand and Aaron’s little one in his and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, and together, we gave him right back to the Lord.

It was 3:00 AM and I knew everyone in the whole world would want to know that Aaron had arrived. So I woke them up—first our parents, then my sister, then my brother the math teacher, a thousand miles away who would have to be up two hours later. I called my little brother in Miami and friends both near and far. By 5:00 AM, we couldn’t think of anyone else to call, but I was still too excited to sleep. The nurses brought Aaron, tightly swaddled, into my room in a warming bed. I spent several hours watching him sleep before they let me cuddle him again.

Since then, I had two other unbelievably exciting moments with the births of our daughter and our second son. Those moments were also exhilarating and surreal. My total amazement at the idea that God would bless me with three gorgeous little lives to love and take joy in is beyond my understanding.

But I still have to admit that the birth of our first one was my greatest moment of happiness on the Richter scale of happiness. I guess it was the thought that it could never happen to me that made it so totally dreamlike and unreal.

I love it that God gives us these moments to look back on, and He enables us to relive them whenever we want to.  Happy Birthday, my precious Aaron Nathan.