Chris had scheduled his R&R leave around the baby’s due date, January 21, 2007, to make sure he was there for the birth. This time, it was the baby girl who had other plans. On January 3, Keesley (which is the Celtic female form of Christopher) decided it was time to move.
“My whole family was there and everyone was excited, except we were missing someone really important,” said Leah. “I kept telling my family that I missed Chris and couldn’t do this without him, but my mom just kept telling me that God would help me through this.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Iraq, Chris was on edge. “I called about every fifteen minutes, anticipation and adrenaline coursing through my body,” he said. “Finally, on the fifth phone call, I heard the enthusiasm in the air before I actually got the news: I was a father now as of 1:56 a.m. January 4, 2007.”
Ten minutes later Chris received his first picture of Keesley via email. “When I saw the picture for the first time I started to tear up of course, and all my friends could say was, ‘How can that be? She is beautiful, but she looks just like you.’ They were trying to get me out of my emotional phase, but I was too deep into the miracle God had given my wife and me.”
When Leah and Chris finally got to talk that evening, they cried tears of both joy and sadness together on the phone. “He told me that he was proud of me, and I answered him with, ‘I need you home!’” said Leah. “We were both so happy with having her and being parents.”
Sometimes God’s timing doesn’t make sense to us. It isn’t what we would have chosen, or how we would have planned it. During these times, may we simply trust in God’s sovereignty rather than dwell on what we cannot control ourselves.
Lord, grant me the courage to trust in your plan for my life.
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8)