Mexico Ministry: Paco and Eileen Lopez: The (epic) birth of our son: Asher Obed Lopez!

After five days at the hospital attending our daughter, Jemina Mercy, for her critically low platelet count, the Lopez family was finally home. Jemi was just starting to act like herself: eating breakfast, playing and talking, taking a bath… and then my labor contractions started! Apparently our son, and God, had graciously allowed us to complete Jemina´s hospital treatment before sending us back to the hospital for birth.

After a little over an hour of contractions increasing in strength and frequency, I called my OB, who instructed me to update her in an hour on my condition. However, after only another

half hour of intense contractions, my mother (an obstetrician!) decided to check my cervix herself: already 7cm dilated! She commented: You might not arrive at the hospital in time to deliver this baby! Aah!

Paco, my mother, and I rushed to the car: all the while my mom was dialing my OB to inform her we were rushing to the hospital, without success. And then, about a third of the way, our car

suddenly died in mid highway! We could not believe it! Our vehicle had not shown signs of car problems in months- and suddenly it died at the worst possible moment! My immediate response: This feels like a scene right out of a movie!

By God’s grace, at that very moment, a police car was passing, which Paco quickly hailed to ask to take his laboring pregnant wife urgently to the

hospital. Once my mom and I were in the police car, one of the officials turned to ask my name: but when he saw I could not even respond with my name because a contraction hit, he frantically signaled to his partner to step on the gas, and turned on the police sirens to race us through traffic!!

Once at the hospital, I was whisked back to labor and delivery, where the nurse announced I was practically 10cm dilated, and then scolded me for not coming to the hospital sooner. Ha! (as if that were an option!). My poor mother was stopped at hospital admission and was bombarded by questions and paperwork, all in

Spanish, to which she could not respond, before they gave up and let her go back to see me. She barely had a few minutes at my side before my OB arrived, huffing and puffing from racing to the hospital, to have me wheeled off to the delivery room. The on-call anesthesiologist was able to place my epidural even in my advanced state (praise the Lord!).

And then, before I even started pushing, Paco rushed into the delivery room to be at my side! Oh, the joy! I had despaired of him missing the whole birth, as he had to stay with our broken-down car mid-highway. But, he found a tow-truck just across the street from our vehicle

(only God does that!), and a mechanic right next door where our car could be towed. Then, he contacted a taxi driver we had used during Jemi’s hospital stay to not only take him to the hospital but also do follow-up on his car at the mechanic while he was at his son’s birth. (What type of taxi driver offers to do that?!)

Asher Obed Lopez was born at 2:14pm on Thursday, July 19, amid many tears of joy from momma and smiles from his papa. He weighed 3.220kilos (7lbs 1.5oz), and was 49cm long. He is perfect, and a great eater from day one, and looks so much like his sister, Jemina, at birth. Jemina adores him- and is a very proud, and

possessive, big sister (though sometimes overly exuberant in her shows of affection for him).

That whole first night I had trouble sleeping because I kept going over every detail of Asher’s birth in my head- so so many things could have gone horribly wrong, but the Lord so perfectly worked out every detail to perfection. I would not have changed a thing. Remembering God's grace in it all still brings tears to my eyes.

Through this experience, I have witnessed yet again the sovereign control and incredible love that God has, not just for my life, but for my family. He has very special plans for Asher