two of the most wonderful healing balms

O'Deller looks like she is getting her nose "beeped" by little brother
Gideon in my arms
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I lost my "mamaw", my grandmother, who was like my 2nd mom just two days before the birth of O'Deller back in 2008. Our daughter began showing imminent signs of labor that morning and that evening a little after 8 p.m. I received the call that my sweet Mamaw had been called Home. The pendulum of my emotions swept from one end to the opposite end in a mere twelve hours. My Mamaw was a treasure to me.....I was more like her 5th child than her first grandchild. I spent quite a bit of time with her and my Papaw (who passed away in 1986, three months after I was married). I even was blessed to have my own room at their house since I was able to spend so much time with them. She was very dear to me.
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I agonized over where I needed to be.....here with our daughter or there, 450 miles away with my mom and other loved ones mourning my Mamaw. After much, much prayer and conversations with my hubby, daughter, son (inlaw), my mom and stepdad, I knew I was to stay here.....as my mom and hubby put it....we knew where Mamaw was, and I would see her again, and she would tell me to stay put. And she would have....
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Two days later, God brought O'Deller into the world and into our lives. Again...in the next 24 hours my emotions would swing.....our precious grand daughter was home and my Mamaws funeral was beginning two states away. I still felt torn.
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God, whom I state over and over is faithful and He used O'Deller to help heal my heart and help ease my grief as I held her, smelled her, listened to her breath. I felt connected, even closer to my Mamaw as I held my first grandchild, a little girl as she must have held me at one time. God flooded me with memories of her as I made new ones with O'Deller. She was a balm to my grieving spirit.
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It had been barely a week and surprisingly, one morning I came downstairs to a commotion and there was my mom and stepdad.....fresh from the road....to see us and to welcome the new life that awaited them....again, God used O'Deller to heal more hearts as she was passed around and oooohed and aaahed over.
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Here I am.....history repeating itself - God is again, using an amazing new, little life to help bring me comfort, healing and peace.....and I should not say selfishly just me, that is wrong....He is bringing it to this whole family. Gideon is precious.....if you are a grandparent you'll know how I mean that....and if you aren't, just wait, I pray you will have the blessing of it! This new little life, who was fearfully and wonderfully made is being used as a balm of healing to this family, I can see it in my children's eyes and voices. I am humbly thankful at the way God is working through this young boy, just weeks old. His plan is, as always, perfectly orchestrated.