Answered Prayers...

First of all, my little baby is here! What a precious bundle of joy! There is absolutely nothing in the world like experiencing your own child. She was born June 5th.

Anyway...anyone that is a parent knows that the first few weeks are tough when in comes to newborns. Last night started out being a tough one.

First of all, I went to bed while my husband was feeding our newborn daughter. I prayed that God would give me strength to get up when little Sara needed me...before my husband had to get up...and prayed that my husband would get a good night's sleep. This is because he had to get up early for work (I'm on maternity leave..I can catch up on sleep the next day while she's napping), and he was already sleep deprived from the night before.

After praying this prayer and my husband put our daughter to bed, everything seemed fine. She seemed as though she was sound asleep for a little while. Then, about ten minutes later, she's crying. This happened about three times. I was aggrevated....and said to God..."What difference does it make when we pray a request to you...It doesn't seem to make a difference. How do you expect us to feel like you'll listen to our prayers when sometimes it's answered and sometimes it's not. I realize my prayer may have been a selfish one, but it was such a small request. And here she is crying and my husband can't get rest.

By that third time, I told my husband I'd take care of Sara. I decided to shut our bedroom door, go into Sara's room and shut her door. I'd put her to bed and sleep on the floor beside her bed in her room...having the doors shut so her crying wouldn't wake my husband.

Not long after, Sara slept for about 4 hours before I got up and fed her again, then she went to sleep again. I woke up to my husband opening up her door. I asked him if he slept. He said "More like knocked out". I was glad...He needed sleep.

After I was up for a little bit, it had dawned on me that my prayer was answered after all. I didn't ask for Sara not to fuss. I only asked for strength to help her and for my husband to get a good nights sleep. And he did that. I immediately felt a little guilty for doubting Him.

It was a lesson learned again....that whether it's a small request or big request, God always seems to answer our prayers in a way that we don't expect. And because it's in a way that we don't expect, we think He hasn't answered them, when in fact, He has.