Miracle

I'm reading a novel called The Birth House by Ami McKay.

I'm not too far into it, but am enjoying it. At the end of the first chapter the narrator relays a poignant observation about the birth process and the nature of miracles. The passage itself is a bit long to be quoted in its entirety, but there was one sentence in particular that took my breath away and reached deep into my heart.  If you are familiar with my experience of pregnancy you will understand why.

"How a mother comes to love her child, her caring at all for this thing that's made her heavy, lopsided and slow, this thing that made her wish she were dead...that's the miracle."

It is by the grace of God and with His power that I, as a mother, love my child. A mother's love (and probably a father's too, but I can only speak to my own experience) can only be possible because of the love Our Heavenly Father has for us. My greatest fear during my pregnancy was that I would resent my child for my illness, but loving Seth is the easiest thing I have ever done. I don't struggle with it in the least and I thank Jesus for this miracle each day. I thank Him too that this woman put it into words for me.

Mineral Oil

This Christmas my sister and I were discussing eye makeup removers. We ended the discussion by determining that Mineral Oil would make a good one and we both resolved to try it. I bought some and relayed my experience via email to my sister.  Maybe you will benefit from this story.

"I bought some Mineral Oil a couple of days ago and thought since you wanted to buy some you might like to hear about my experience! First off, it was an adventure even trying to find the stuff in the grocery store!! Nobody I talked to knew where it was. Finally someone called a manager and she told us where to find it: in the Pharmacy section next to the Miralax. Apparently Mineral Oil is a laxative. People drink it. SICK. Oh well, at least I found it and it was only $3 for a huge bottle. Sweet. Getting it home was uneventful. Once home I poked a hole in the seal, squeezed a little out onto my cotton ball and noticed something funny.  This was astoundingly thick oil. It came out as what can only be described as a "dollop." This is a word I would never think could be associated with an oil -- well, learn something new everyday I suppose. I looked at the bottle and saw something I had not noticed in the grocery store. This was "Extra Heavy" Mineral Oil. Oops. I don't even know if they sold any other kind of Mineral Oil. Oh well -- dollop or not I smeared it on my eyes to get rid of my mascara. It removed the mascara like a dream. GREAT! While admiring my newly cleaned skin in the mirror something strange started to happen. My vision got blurry and my eyes started burning! I used another cotton ball to make sure I had gotten all the goop off my eyes. My eyes slowly stopped burning but for the rest of the day my vision was still blurry. Thinking this was perhaps a freak occurrence I used the Mineral Oil again the next day -- taking care not to use too much - but the same thing happened! Knowing me I'll probably use it again tonight just because it removes mascara so well and I don't having anything else in the house. We'll see. So Sister, take what you will from my story, but I believe it has to be said -- "always be careful when smearing a laxative on your face."