His Perfect Timing

When I was pregnant with Rachel, we had absolutely no idea about Rachel's cleft lip and palate until she was being delivered via an unscheduled c-section. In this day and age of ultrasound technology, people are often surprised that her clefts weren't picked up on ultrasound.

We thought about it a lot in the early days and truth be told, we really didn't have thorough ultrasounds when I was pregnant with Rachel like I did when I was pregnant with Hannah. With Hannah, we had ultrasounds where they showed us the kidneys, the beating heart, the arms, the legs, every little nook and cranny. But with Rachel, the ultrasounds were done in the OB/GYN's office by a tech who was simply measuring and documenting growth and measurements. So not having proper ultrasounds is one reason why her clefts weren't picked up, but the other reason, and the reason I believe was the main reason - it wasn't the Lord's will that we find out prior to Rachel's arrival. For some reason, He knew it was best for us and our family that we found out when we did. Those reasons won't ever be known, but it was His will and His perfect timing.

For others, His will and timing are different.

Last week, a comment was left by a Mommy, who at over half way through her pregnancy found out that their unborn baby will have a cleft lip, possibly a cleft palate. For that family He chose to reveal the clefts sooner, rather than later. And in their course of preparing and researching, they found Rachel's Journey!

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well."

Psalm 139:13-14

For this family and the many others who have come our way in the last few years, I hope that the pictures and the telling of Rachel's Journey through this blog offers them encouragement and hope and joy seeing how well the Lord has taken care of our Rachel, and how He's gotten us through having had a baby been born with a birth defect.

Baby Abigail's parents have set up a blog for her journey. If you'd like to meet her and begin praying for her, and her parents, you can visit her blog.