THIS TIME LAST YEAR

1.08am
4th July 2008
This time last year I was busy monitoring my sisters progress in labour via the GSM. I could hardly sleep, I actually did not sleep and I was exhausted in the morning when at last the watch was over. At exactly 7am she 'dropped' a healthy female child. I went off with my parents (one set of proud grandparents) to catch a glimpse of the new arrival who was now the centre of attraction( babies always seem to steal the spotlight!)

My sister looked very tired and could barely sit up to acknowledge our greetings and excited cries of how light her child was and how beautiful she looked but her husband filled in the silence on her part with his response. The joy on his face could light up the artic, you could see that he was the proud father!

The next day my sister tried her best to act the part of a good mother, she tried to breastfeed, to get out of bed but she was so tired. I put it all down to her being exhausted by the process of labour.

On the morning of the next day (7th) she greeted me with the words 'my ears are ringing'. I paid little attention to her statement and encouraged her to eat breakfast. She did and any pangs of disquiet I had subsided. Less than an hour after breakfast several things almost turned sour our rejoicing but God intervened.

Ill allow my sister to share her story. She has written about it in her blog http://www.lamikayty.blogspot.com/ under the posts 1.Remebering...2.Mo Ranti 3. Memories make me cry 4.I will not forget.

For now I just want to thank God for the opportunity of celebrating my niece's first birthday without a broken heart or sad memories of what could have been. Thank you Lord for Toluwalase's birth, for keeping her mum safe and keeping their family unit intact. Thank you that joy came in the morning after all our tears!

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