12.07.2010

mind: blown

we are on a roll today with both parents at home and both kids napping for uncharacteristically long periods. so i am gonna blog my heart out until exhaustion claims me.

pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and the early days with a new baby constantly blow my mind. its like you're this walking museum of the miraculous. i mean, i think we all know where babies come from, but the fact that just doing that once at just the right time results in a chain reaction of about a billion miracles that results in a perfect tiny human life is fairly incredible.

i am a great lover of science, and evolution in particular. i also happen to believe the bible's creation account pretty literally too. this may make me seem flaky and not to faithful to either since most people vehemently hold to one or another. but i get by with this because god is was smarter than me and invented science as well as the bible. if i'm down with the notion that he created, um, everything, then i think i can mentally give him the power to create it all in 7 literal days while leaving 5 billion years of natural science behind...even if i don't really understand how. hopefully i haven't offended the science community OR the jesus community with these beliefs (tea party folks, i'm cool with offending). anyway, all that is to say that the combination of the scientifically explicable and the logic-defying miraculous that makes up bringing a baby in to the world is something i could just sit around and ponder for years.

here is a list of some of the most recent truth-bombs that have been exploding in my hormone-ravaged brain that send me into awe-fests of double-rainbow proportions.

1. when i was pregnant with judah, my decidedly female body somehow had the instructions, materials and know-how to make a penis from scratch. what the what?!?!

2. in the natural childbirth books they talk about how nature/god was kind in the design of labor in that the pain is bad but it isn't constant. you always get a break in between contractions: a few minutes (or seconds if you're under the influence of pitocin) that are completely pain-free. i used to think, "yeah, big whoop, it still hurts like hell after the breaks," but i was thinking about this the other day and the fact is: you are moving a fully formed human being from inside your body, where it started as 2 cells, to the outside world where it will live independently. or just think of the idea of moving an 8 lb mass from inside of you to outside of you. um, that should hurt NONSTOP. while childbirth is no picnic and, according to genesis, is actually a consequence of the fall, god is merciful even in that because even in labor we get a few pain free minutes for every minute of agony. cool, right?

3. i have to run because another miracle just presented itself in my chesticle region and i need to unload. and speaking of amazing creation: hello, breastmilk? i could drink nothing but blue kool aid all day long and my body would still know how to turn it into awesome-packed milk (and it wouldn't even be blue!). this stuff is a perfect genetic match for my one specific baby and it delivers nutrition, antibodies and comfort all in one suckle. AMAZING!

do you have any favorite biological mind-blowers of your own? do share. thinking about all of this stuff and how improbable and ordained it all is really makes me love my little creations and my awesome creator even more.


dear jesus,

thank you so much


for letting me borrow these little nuglets of yours. they are sincerely awesome. love, keight

7 comments:

  1. love love love. childbirth and the creation of a tiny human inside you blows my mind everyday and i havent even experienced it yet.
    you two sure make cute babies.

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  2. I've been dying for a shot of Judah with Layla... I cried for the first time on here... since Judah was born maybe?! Omg, amazing... love love finding and noticing miracles and faith :-)

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  3. What freaks me out is that God managed to make one of my children look like my dad! When I look at Britton, I see my dad staring back at me. And they are 59 years apart! He managed to save the blueprints that long and took them out and gave me a mini version of my dad. That's crazy I think!

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  4. I know this isn't about babies but two things blow my mind that I can think of:

    One- the mirrored image of Layla from this post and on your sidebar. I looked back and forth two or three times before I realized what was the same, but different. Duh.

    Two- Gravity and the earths rotation. I don't get it. It's the craziest thing that we are moving and spinning constantly yet even when you look at the stars and stuff at night, you don't see it happening. And that rotation gives us days, nights, and keeps our bodies planted on solid ground. Huh? That's whack.

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  5. Recovering from child birth... I was up right afterward and doing fine- it's amazing!! And Judah in those glasses looks just like you.

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  6. Another fascination...what tells our bodies to go into labor? Certainly must be different for each, since some babies are early, late and on time. It makes it so easy to believe in a creator who has infinite ways to stage that coming out party!

    Love your tenderness and ooze, Keight. The picture of Judah holding Layla's tiny hand is incredible. Such a sweet baby boy! Love them both SO much!

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  7. i heart this post...i have a biology degree and taught high school bio and to me the more i study science the more i am amazed by God and his creation...there is no way our kids and this world happened by chance. we have an awesome creator and i LOVE how he works!

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