I found the pic above. It is a beautiful orchid that just happens to bear my name. My prayer is that I bring beauty and joy to others much like the beauty of this flower brings joy to me. Music also inspires me, as you see from my the blog prior to this one. The song that prompted my memory and this blog was sung recently by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in their "Celebration of Life", a birthday tribute to President Monson, President and Prophet of the LDS Church. The choir was accompanied by the band of the Air Force Reserve, which is also significant to my miracle story. My first husband and father of my five children was in the Air Force for the first four years of our marriage.
Another flower in my life that brings joy to me is my beautiful daughter, Audrey Hall. Every one of my children are on my mind and in my heart always. I love them all. This beautiful selection, "Consider the Lilies of the Field", reminded me of the inspiration that lead me to the decision to trust God and have another child. It was 1979. I had three boys under five and thought my hands were full. On top of that, my husband Bill said he was planning to get out of the Air Force. He had no job prospects lined up nor did we know where we would live! One morning he told me about a dream he had. He said this beautiful little blonde blue-eyed girl appeared before him and begged, "Please let me come", "Please let me come", "Please let me come"! Three times! I was surprised. God had given me no such notification. I said, "It must have been something you ate." He was adamant that his dream held great and deep meaning. I practically said if I got pregnant now we would have no insurance for the birth of the baby. It was bad timing to have another child. Then Bill had the same dream two more times! In his dreams there were two other little girls that were to come. After those three witnesses I could no longer hold out in my disbelief. But, oh boy! This was just too much! Would God send a request like this now? I often turned to Karen, my sister twelve years older than me. Back then we had "snail mail" so I wrote a letter to Karen about my dilemma and she wrote back, encouraging me to read in Matthew 6:28-33. As I did I was moved to tears. I qoute the verses from the King James Version of the Bible:
"28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
I prayerfully considered my options, putting all in the Lord's hands. I had had difficult pregnancies, even requiring drugs and surgery to prevent early births. One birth was in the thousands, but the insurance through the Air Force had covered most of it. With faith, I stopped using birth control. Yet, still thinking I could help out God a little and maybe still being of little faith, I grabbed a book off the shelf of the library, entitled, "How to choose the Sex of Your Baby". I guess I thought we could use a little scientific help! I took my temperature faithfully as recommended by the Doctors who wrote the book and planned our intimate moments accordingly to ensure I would have a girl. Well, according to my chart and temperature recordings, we messed up! I was sure
we had created a boy! I thought that God was having us wait for that little girl, sneaking in another boy in the meantime. I even went so far to tell the doctor at one of my visits that "HE" was kicking a lot. The Doctor said, "You said "HE"." "Oh, yeah, its another boy", I replied with conviction. I guess I thought I was only a "boy-making" machine! Ha! Just in case, Bill and I tossed around some girl's names. I chose Abigail. He did not like it. So we settled on Audrey Ann. The middle name belonged to my sister Dorothy. In those days, we had sonograms, but no way to tell the sex of the unborn. We had to wait for the birth. I was delightfully surprised when a beautiful girl was born. There were other elements surrounding the delivery that were miraculous. During my pregnancy, I saw specialists and a nutritionist in a city about a 30 minute drive away and paid for each visit, but planned to have our baby in a small country hospital where they had a nice birthing room, about an hour's drive up a mountain! I chose that location because it would only be $300 a night if all went well, (with no complications). I prayed hard and felt an assurance that all would go well. How I hoped for that, I don't know, because each of my three boys had been born breech and my husband had not been able to be present. Well, Audrey showed the boys how it is to be done by coming the normal way, head first, and we had her in the birthing room with my husband present. In fact, he got to hold her for a moment before he had to rush off to take a test for truck driving school. The birth was au-natural and I required no medication or stitches. Then, as I rested in my hospital room contemplating just staying one day to cut our expenses, a staff member of the hospital gave me some paperwork to fill out. She said there was a grant that might pay for some or all of my stay. I filled it out and
low and behold, she came back and said it had been approved. Our entire hospital bill was covered! I think back and am amazed at how it all worked out. As Audrey grew into a toddler, Bill said that Audrey looked just like the little girl in his dream. You can imagine she was the apple of his eye. The second little girl from Bill's dream came a few years later. I never had a third girl or another child, (
Bill said there should have been one more in between the two girls) but I sometimes wonder if my granddaughter Ana is that little girl. She just had to wait awhile and came to Audrey. People often tell me how she looks like me. She is special to me too as are all of my grandchildren.
Listening to this song in August 2012 brings me to tears and prompts memories of how the Lord blesses us abundantly with daily miracles! It got me to thinking about my own celebration of life and the recurring miracles I enjoy. I think we just need to be aware that we are not alone. We are being watched over and cared for, so if we just step out in faith....the Lord helps us along the way.
