Jael's Journey: A (very different sort of) Birth Story, Part 2

So when I last left off the story (with apologies, I've been studying like fury to pass my training exams so I can actually KEEP my new job, so this story might take a week), beautiful Jael had just graced the world with her furious cries.  It was (for me, at least) a very different sort of birth.  Instead of rejoicing with midwives and sighing great sighs of relief, oohing and aahing over the miracle of birth, I was standing idly by while my two ladies were attended -- each by their own hospital team.

    After five minutes of activity, they asked me to accompany Jael upstairs to the hatchery, where she would be kept until Rachel was through recovery and settled in a room.  It was a pleasant surprise to run into Father Tim (our priest) upstairs, and I was tired enough to tell him what an unexpected surprise it was to see him there.  After we had chatted and prayed together for health and strength for Rachel and Jael, he headed off for the rest of his morning.  I called the families and tried to walk them through the birth and to tell them how to spell and pronounce our little princess' name.  It's Jael, pronounced Ji-ell, and she is named after a fierce warrior of the days of the Judges.  The story is told in Judges 4:15-22.  15 And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot.16 And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

17 But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.18 And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” 21 But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. 22 And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.   For anyone familiar with the Hebrew faith or the Old Testament, we fully intended on this little girl being a tough beauty-- we figured she's need it with two older brothers like LJ and Judah.  As it turned out, we couldn't have named her more appropriately. 

       By the time we (Jael and I) made it back to recovery to see the beautiful Rachel and got transferred into postpartum, it became clear pretty quickly that she wasn't doing so hot.  Really.  It wasn't so much that she was throwing up every ten minutes (that just made it feel like she was pregnant again,)  it was more the fact that while she was complaining that the room was unbearably hot, her temperature was registering a smouldering 93.4 Fahrenheit.  Before my very eyes, Rachel was well on her way to becoming a real ice queen-- and it was only 10:30am. Jael might have beaten most of the odds getting out of the womb, but she was unknowingly staring down life without a mother in a far more real way than any of us knew yet.

     The story continues tomorrow...