Sara: Lately, I’ve had a hard time with my emotions. At least twice this week, I’ve begun crying for no particular reason. It’s even beginning to get on my nerves – sometimes I’m not certain how Justin is able to handle it!

Justin: I generally handle it ok. I have come to understand that small things can be very emotional for Sara right now. I do my best to just be understanding and not to judge whether her emotional responses are rational or not for the given situation. After all, emotions are rarely rational.

Sara: As I’ve mentioned before, Justin and I have been working on picking out paint colors for our living room, dining room, and hallway for at least a month. I’ve been less than patient throughout the process. Several times, I believe I could be quoted as saying, “Just pick out a color and paint it.”

Finally, we bought paint this weekend, and Justin begun the painting process while I was out of the house. Unfortunately, Justin didn’t care for the neutral color we picked out after it was on the wall. While it wasn’t exactly what I had pictured, I didn’t mind it. Picking out these paint colors has been so stressful for me that I, unfortunately, cried for nearly an hour after he told me this.

Justin: It might just be the fatigue from all the hard work and painting talking (I hate the idea of having to repeat so much of the hard work I have put in), but I think I am starting to come around on the color. At least, I don’t think we are going to repaint it.

Sara: Thankfully, with the long weekend, we were able to spend more time together than what’s been possible the last few weeks between a family function, wedding, and a hectic end of the year work schedule for me. After several hours, I was just grateful to be spending some quality time with Justin, and I was grateful for his patience with my frustration. We decided Justin would paint the rest of the colors in the living spaces, and give the neutral color a few days before we’d make a decision about either repainting or other options. I was still upset at the thought of repainting, both because of the cost of the paint and because Justin had put in a lot of sweat to paint with the windows open on a 90 degree day.

Then, I found out one of my acquaintances, due with her first child only a week or two before me, lost her child this weekend during her third trimester. Although we don’t know each other well, I’d really followed her pregnancy, especially because she works in the health industry.

This put things into perspective for me. We can’t always understand God’s plan, but we’ve got to trust He has one. I don’t have any comforting words to offer to my friend, as I know that nothing I can do or so can make her loss easier to bear. However, Justin and I are keeping her and her family in my prayers.

This situation also helps me appreciate the miracle of birth. Even with all of our modern technology, each human life that is born into this world is a miracle. We may not face the consequences of loss of life on a daily basis, such as was done just a hundred years ago, but each life is still just as much of a miracle.

After this experience, it would be easy to worry often if our baby is even going to make it to birth. However, each and every day of our child’s life (even while he/she is the womb), we have to commit our child to God’s care and plan. And now is the best time to start.