a TASTE of Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul

Led by God

The desire of a man is his kindness. - PROVERBS 19:22

The car heater was running full blast, but it was still freezing cold inside the blue Oldsmobile as Monica steered onto the main road. It was a few minutes before midnight, December 31. All of the businesses were closed and every house was pitch dark. Everyone is out celebrating, Monica thought as yet another spasm of pain gripped her like a vise.
Across the nation  millions of people were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a brand-new year. Monica, alone and terrified, had a different kind of arrival to contend with. Twenty minutes before Monica had been warm and cozy, gabbing with friends and having a wonderful time. She and her friend Dawn were swapping pregnancy stories and trying to guess which of their babies would be the first to arrive. Both women were due in early February.
Monica, who was separated from her fiancé, was looking forward to the arrival if her second child. So was her seven-year-old daughter, Amanda. Amanda was with her grandparents now, on their way to the family's beach cottage. Monica had stopped off to spend a few minutes with friends before making the forty- five- minute drive to join them .
It was just past eleven and Monica was buttoning her coat to leave when suddenly she felt a tiny cramp in her abdomen. "Are you okay?" Her friends asked, concerned. "It was probably just a false labor pain," Monica said, refusing their offer to rush her to the hospital. "I'm not due for another five weeks yet."
But starting her car, Monica felt a   cramp, stronger than first. Amanda was early. Maybe this baby will be too, she thought, and headed to her folks' house to find her sister, Terry.
A few blocks from home Monica cried out in alarm as her water broke. Stay calm, she
told herself. The pains are still far apart. There's plenty of time before baby comes. But the house was dark. Terry must have gone out with her boyfriend, Monica guessed. She briefly considered running inside and calling 911, but the hospital was only twelve miles away. I can make it easily, she thought. It wasn't  long before Monica deeply regretted her decision to drive on. "I'm in labor!" She cried out as an intense contraction  took hold and refused to let go. "I need help! I can't have this baby alone!"
Monica sped to nearest pay phone. But the phone had been removed, and every business in sight was closed for the holiday. It was twelve o'clock midnight, and there wasn't another car on the road anywhere. Frantic, Monica turned off the main road and steered down residential streets searching for even one house with its lights burning. Please, God, let someone be home, she prayed, turning into a cul- de- sac where she discovered several houses with lights And cars. Monica pulled in front of one houses, threw open the car door and struggled unsteadily to her feet. But at the last second something told her to head the other way, across the street to a different house. The front lawn seemed as wide as a football field as Monica stumbled to the porch. "Please, someone call an ambulance!" She cried out, pressing the bell with one hand while banging on the door with the other . "I'm having a baby -- right now!"
Dianne Minter, thirty-five, was awakened from a sound sleep by the sudden commotion at her mom's front door. Dianne, her husband Clyde, and their three kids had traveled all the way from Lynchburg, Virginia, through falling snow to spend New Year's Day with her parents, George and Joyce Ware. Dianne was exhausted, but the instant her mom called her name she was on her feet and racing to the stairs, still dressed in a pair of red pajamas. "Oh my!" Dianne exclaimed when she saw the very pregnant woman all but collapsed in het dad's arms. "Lay her down so I can examine her," she instructed. "I need an ambulance!" Monica sobbed. "I can feel my baby coming!" "I've already called 911," Dianne's mom calmly spoke. "You certainly picked the right house to come to. My daughter is a labor and delivery nurse."
Dianne's dad gathered up sheets and blankets while her brother-in-law, Dale, a former emergency medical technician, held Monica's hand and monitored her pulse.
"I can see something coming," Dianne said after yet another contraction, only she wasn't sure it was the baby's head. When Monica visited her obstetrician just two days ago the baby to shift into the proper position, the doctor had assured Monica. But that was only two days ago, Dianne silently worried. For Dianne knew all too well that if the baby was still transverse there was a good chance Monica might deliver an arm or a foot first, or the cord could get caught and without an emergency C-section Monica's pre-term infant might even die.
"Please don't let anything bad happen to my baby!" Monica begged, sensing something was wrong. "Try not to push," Dianne coaxed her, hoping to delay the baby's birth until Monica could be taken to the hospital.
When the paramedics arrived, Dianne helped load Monica onto the stretcher, but it was too late to move her. "The baby's crowning!" Dianne exclaimed, greatly relieved because finally she could see the baby's head.
A few more contractions and the baby was out. A few seconds later she heard the sweetest sound in the world --- her baby's first cries.
Dianne bundled the baby snugly and handed him to his mom. "Hold him close and keep him as warm as you can," she gently instructed.
"Thank you," Monica sobbed as she was carried away on the stretcher. At the hospital the admitting nurse was about to have Monica taken to a delivery room when she heard the tiny cries. Instead she rushed the baby to a warming bed in the neonatal intensive care unit, where doctors soon pronounced baby Jacob healthy and fit as a fiddle.
The next morning Monica was cuddling her four-pound, thirteen-ounce newborn son in her arms when Dianne and her Family arrived with a gift - wrapped baby outfit and rattle. Monica burst into tears the moment she spotted Dianne in the doorway. "Thank you," she sobbed. "I know God must have led me to your house last night." "It certainly was a New Year's Eve I'll never forget," Dianne replied.

By Bill Holton

The End

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