Dreams

Alicia at Renewed in Him has posed an interesting question and it has brought back a flood of memories for me. She was wondering what role dreams play in our lives. Do they have a specific meaning? Does God use dreams to tell us things as He did in Bible times?

It made me think of this experience that began just toward the end of our first year of marriage.

As is so often the case for young couples, I began longing for a child. I could see myself snuggling and cuddling a little one. Of course, it was all romanticized. There were no dirty diapers, this imaginary baby didn't get ear infections....you know. I was ready to begin our family. Warren was not. He was quite happy just being the two of us.

I decided that one of two things needed to happen. Either my desire to have a child needed to be put on hold for a while, or Warren needed to want our family to grow, as well. So, I pulled out my favorite weapon. I prayed that Warren would want a baby to hold and to love.

The very next morning he said, you won't believe the dream I had last night. There was a sweet little girl looking up at me with the most adoring eyes. He was nearly in tears. He was ready to start a family.

Over the course of the next few years we had one boy, then another boy. We would comment that his dream must have gotten it wrong because we felt that we could be done having children...and yet there was that little girl in the dream. Who was she? Why was it so crystal clear and why was that what God used to change Warren's heart?

One day, out of the blue, I found out I was expecting...again. This would be just after I sold every baby item we owned! We had no maternity insurance, no baby things and no expectations of having another one. I had to "adjust"!

Round about the fourth month I began having early contractions and extremely high blood pressure. The doctor said he had never seen such high blood pressures so early in a pregnancy. He was a veteran OB not a newbie just out of school. There were many tests. I was on bedrest from the end of the fourth month. One of those tests was an ultrasound. This is where I fell in love with Chelsea. She got her name then. I began buying little dresses.

Several times I was in preterm labor in the hospital and was told that if I delivered nothing could be done....Chelsea was too little.

As time went on....the OJ Simpson trial had at least one person that saw it from beginning to end...from the couch I watched friends from church clean my oven, deliver meals, care for my two toddlers, family take off from work to care for us. The blessings just poured into our lives.

I learned the power of prayer. For someone who is a "do-er" lying around all day, every day, gets very old. God taught me that my value is not in me...it is from Him...I joined a woman from church in praying that her son and a young woman from the congregation would fall in love and be married. They did and they are so happy all of these years later. There were so many things to pray about. I miss so many of these as I am so busy "doing".

There was a nurse who would come to my home every day to check on my well being. She ended up coming to our church after this and really grew in the Lord. I am just saying that the Lord's ways are not always our ways. I was so frustrated with the circumstances but kept falling more and more in love with the little girl fighting to live inside of me.

Finally, the doctors agreed that if Chelsea made it to July 6th they would induce me a couple of weeks early. Warren had a huge part to play in the local Fourth of July Celebrations. The big happenings were at Nittany Stadium in State College which happens to be very near the hospital. He would not assure me that he would come if labor began. He said that I just could not have her that day. Ha! Well, while I did have contractions she waited and I was induced as planned.

Today, we have the loveliest daughter named Chelsea. I know that she made an impact on this world before she even took her first breath of air! Chelsea does look up at her Daddy with adoring eyes just like he saw in his dream.
Doesn't it just make you wonder?

Does God still speak to us in dreams? Was that a coincidence? We held onto the hope that she would make it, in part because of that dream...Hmmmm....I don't really know but I know that God used it in our lives in a big way.

Another faith building experience...as you get older you look back on your life and see the handprint of God so clearly. When you are in the midst of it sometimes it is harder to see His plan.

Well, this post was a lot longer than I even dreamt of posting today. I am sure that this story was told on this blog before...in some form...so if you have already read it, I apologize. I just had to reflect on this today after reading Alicia's Dream Post.