Home Birth
On March 8, 2023 we welcomed our baby girl, Hope Selah into the world. It was such an amazing and exciting day and we have been so blessed to have Hope with us. Last year, around this time, we were in the Philippines and we were meeting with a pastor. He wanted to pray for us and give us some prophetic words from the Lord. One of the things he could see was us having another baby and that it was a girl and also he prayed about a seed of hope. We kept this in our hearts and as we returned to America, we were transitioning into moving to Boise, Idaho. So we packed up and moved not knowing Lahmi was pregnant! Shortly after we got to Boise, we figured out that Lahmi was pregnant. Lahmi strongly felt that it was a girl but I was reserved.
As the day came to get the ultrasound to figure out the gender I remember Lahmi looking at me and saying, “Are you not even excited?” I said, “Of course I am, I am just trying to stay calm.” As we had the ultrasound and the doctor told us, “it’s a girl!”, we were excited and I was in disbelief as it had been a dream of course to have a daughter.We talked about different names but we always liked the name Hope, it was one of the words that really stuck with us during the pregnancy. With our boys, God gave us specific words about them as well so we knew Hope was the word. During the pregnancy, God was saying that the world needs Hope, and Jesus is the hope. He is the hope of salvation. As we talked about middle names, Lahmi really liked the middle name Selah.
One morning before Lahmi was going for a prayer and worship gathering, she said, “I think I really want her middle name to be Selah.” After a few hours when I picked Lahmi up, she was quiet for a while and then she told me that when she was at the gathering someone came up to her and said, “Selah, Selah, Selah, Selah.” without knowing that we were even thinking about that as the middle name. So we decided on Selah as the word spoke to our season. There are different thoughts on what the word Selah means in the Bible but for us we chose Selah because it is to look up to Jesus, to be in awe of Him and to worship Him.
One day, Lahmi and I were talking and said, “What if we did a home birth?”, which was different for us as that wasn’t something we were looking at. We left it there to see and then the next day we were at a gathering and after it was finished, a woman and her husband came up who were sitting behind us. They enjoyed seeing the boys smiling and playing and asked about Lahmi’s pregnancy. She then said that she was a midwife and she did home births. Lahmi and I were shocked but we waited to see what God wanted to do. As we kept going to our normal checkups at the hospital, we were beginning to want something different. Our first child Ezekiel was born before his due date and was in the NICU for 45 days. He was perfectly healthy the entire time and we had many opportunities to share the Lord’s peace during that time. During our second pregnancy/delivery with Malachi and our pregnancy/delivery with Hope, the doctors tried to be more careful but still nobody could explain what happened the first pregnancy. We didn’t want to have anyone speak fear over our situation or say we were “high risk” but we just wanted to trust the Lord in every aspect of the pregnancy and delivery.
One night Lahmi was having some pain and so we called the midwife and her and her husband drove 45 minutes late at night just to bring some medicine and to pray for Lahmi, Hope and our family. She saw Hope in the the womb surrounded and protected in gold. We held on to that word and the peace the Lord gave us in that moment and knew He wanted us do a home birth with the midwife. As the pregnancy kept going, it was such relief and a blessing to have a midwife who valued the Holy Spirit, who responded to God’s voice and was obedient to Him even if it was unconventional. On the day of labor, the Holy Spirit filled the room. Lahmi and our midwife were just enjoying the Lord in His Presence and relying on Him for His strength. He filled the room with joy and laughter and Hope was born in His Presence.
We have been reminded more and more of the foundations of His Presence and enjoying family that He has built our family on. With each child He draws us closer to Him and one another. He is helping us to cultivate His Presence in our home and to keep our eyes fixed on Him! It is so important to us to follow God’s peace in everything and to do whatever He is showing us and giving us peace to do. We pray that you follow His peace in everything as you trust in Him and draw near to Him.
