Natalie means ‘born on Christmas,’ and she nearly was.

Jeff and Jamie are friends of ours and students at the seminary where Jeri teaches (and one of the schools open to me teaching there). They are actually finished their studies, but opted to stay on to have their first-born at home with Deborah as their midwife.

There had been some complications and the birth was running late, but they called at midnight the night before last, well in labor. There were some scary moments, but Natalie was born at 4:18 am, a beautiful and healthy little girl.

Homebirths are a special privilege for Deborah, and I also got to be involved by hauling water up the stairs so they could birth in a small indoor pool. I was thinking at two o’clock in the morning, ‘There’s absolutely no place in the world I’d rather be right now than hauling water up these steps to assist in the birth of a friend's baby.’

Deborah will certainly enjoy her holidays much better knowing that Natalie is already with us and everything is fine.