For as long as I can remember, my father has been totally floored by how cute babies and toddlers are. His remark upon seeing a child behaving adorably was always the same: “God love him!” But the way he said it was accented with a laugh and such emphasis that it sounded more like “Gyod love ‘im!”
I have become my father. I mean, in this respect, I am now predictable. My own kids—young adults at this point—get a kick out of how passionately I react to little kids. Maybe it’s a grandparent gene that lies dormant until a certain age. But I can’t just walk by a delightful kid. I have to stop and absorb the delightfulness. I have to point out the cuteness to anyone willing to humor me. My son laughs at me while I watch the chubby toddler across the street playing hockey with a stick twice his height. How can people take things like that for granted? Little kids, on the whole, are one of my favorite “things.”
So it was with pleasure that I accepted the offer to write Labor of Love for the novella collection, The Midwife’s Legacy. Yes, the story is more about adults than it is about children. But the plot definitely leans upon the blessings children bring to our lives. Kendra Silverstone, my heroine, has no children of her own yet. But her entire career is centered on helping others add to their families in as gentle and healthy a way possible. When an aggressive adversary thwarts her efforts, she perseveres with babies in mind.
Personally, I was never very good at giving birth, and I probably wouldn’t have done very well with a midwife unless she was willing to provide anesthesia of some kind. But only salvation has brought more joy to my life than the two kids and two grandkids God has given me so far. And I think I see a bit of my own babies in all of
the children I see around me.
I may not say it out loud, but I certainly hear it in my head. “God love ‘em!”
About the collection: Four brave women fight against the outside elements, the odds, and those who oppose them as they help to bring new life into the world and also find new love. In this generational, which starts in the Midwest and leads to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, a journal with messages of faith and encouragement in the calling of midwifery is a key factor, written in the mid 1800s by the first midwife of the family, Adele, and added to through the early years, as her descendants also remark on what has helped them. As each story unfolds, the journal provides encouragement to help these women as they embark on their own adventures as midwives, each nugget of wise counsel and Godly wisdom aiding them with what they are going through in their personal lives.
About Labor of Love: Kendra Silverstone has been certain of her calling to be a midwife as long as she can remember. Whether aiding in childbirth at the Willamette Valley Hospital Center or in the privacy of a family home, she feels God’s loving hand in her work. But when a local doctor campaigns aggressively against midwifery at the same time one of Kendra’s mothers experiences the loss of her newborn, she finds her confidence shaken. She starts to reconsider her life’s work and question her reading of God’s guidance. Her blossoming romance with carpenter Steven Nichols provides a bright light in her circumstances, not only because of his supportive, nurturing love, but because of the journal he finds while repairing and refinishing an antique desk passed down to Kendra through the years. Will the guidance and blessings provided through her ancestors’ words be enough to convince Kendra of God’s will for her life?
My fellow authors in this exciting collection are Jane Kirkpatrick, Rhonda Gibson, and Pamela Griffin.
For more about Trish Perry, visit her website: www.trishperry.com
Blessings!
