One Heartbeat

I know it's late. (At least late as my husband defines it. I used to produce the 11:00 PM news. Ten o'clock is when I'm just getting warmed up. But my sweet man doesn't share my night owl proclivities, especially during the work week. Ideally, he'd like to be in bed by 9:00 PM -- to which I sweetly, humbly, submissively reply: "Are you kidding me?!?" So normally, 10:00 PM is our compromised bedtime.)

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. It's late. I know I should have posted this much earlier today. But I wanted to wait on one last crucial bit of artwork.

So here it is: a 3D ultrasound photo of our 28-week-old baby girl.





















We hadn't experienced a 3D/4D ultrasound before tonight. It was startling to me how real everything looked. Her lips are perfectly formed. Her fingers flex and relax. Her eyes blink. Her feet kick. (And kick. And kick.) In fact, even as we watched the screen tonight, completely transfixed, we saw our baby, in utero, wrinkle up her nose and give the biggest yawn, just like a newborn is wont to do.





















Wow. I'm in awe of God's masterpiece. I'm in awe that my body is housing this masterpiece, that I have a part to play in this miracle.

I'm also in awe of how much more laundry I'm going to have to fold next year. Here's my dining room table earlier today, straining under the weight of eight loads.
















Motherhood. It's fulfilling. And exhausting. Exhilarating. And tedious. Filled with love. And filled with frustration.

Steven Curtis Chapman knows this. He and his wife, Mary Beth, are parents to six children -- three of their own, mostly grown, and three little Chinese girls they adopted, still very young. And while Steve writes and records and tours and gets the accolades, Mary Beth stays home and does the laundry and the carpooling and the lunch packing -- you know, typical Mom stuff.

So Steven, as he is wont to do (Have you ever attended a Christian wedding that didn't include his classic "I Will Be Here"?), wrote a song for Mary Beth that ended up on his new album, "This Moment."

It's called "One Heartbeat" and it speaks powerfully to the importance and influence of a Godly mom. (Sample clip here.)

You're up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
Like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
And you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Oh, maybe you just don't know
Or maybe you've forgotten

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

With every "I know you can do it"
Every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
They're just like the drops of rain over time
They become a river

And you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
How you're changing the world
You're changing the world

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
Oh, I believe that you
You are changing the world
One little heartbeat
At a time.

Lord, how sweet of You to remind me of the significance of my calling. Encourage the hearts of all my friends who are blessed with the title of Mom. We are changing the world.

Reminder: Leave me a comment on this post to enter the drawing for a free "This Moment" CD, courtesy of SCC.