The best of times…

The announcement of the impending birth of a new Surratt is usually accompanied by all the intrigue and creativity of a good mystery novel. There’s always twists and turns in the story line, and of course, an element of surprise. The future parents try to keep the news a secret until they can spring it on the rest of the family with some kind of creative bent. An ultrasound picture wrapped up as a birthday gift (Miles), a piece of paper saying “it’s gonna happen” (Addison), a tee shirt that announces the fact that “I’m going to be a big brother”. You know the drill. The first hint is usually a hastily called family gathering. We had one just a few weeks ago, at my favorite Mexican food restaurant following a Sunday service. As I was chewing on a half eaten fajita, Lisa, my daughter-in-law, asked me how I liked being a grandpa. I bit, telling her that Miles and Addison were the joy of our lives…a pleasant transition from an empty nest that hasn’t been all that easy to traverse. I went on and on, until she finally interrupted with, “How’d you like to have another?”…revealing a “big brother” tee shirt on soon to be sibling Miles.

We all screamed and hugged and made a scene…everyone that is except Jenna, my other daughter-in-law. She had a puzzled look on her face and was soon involved in a side conversation with her husband Jason. I thought that was kind of weird, until she announced that there would not be just one new Surratt, but two. She was pregnant also, and she and Jason had planned to surprise the family with an announcement in just a few weeks, but this seemed like as good a time as any. Oh my… come to find out, they are due within 3 days of each other…and neither of the girls knew about the other’s secret.

Needless to say, the Surratt family had church that day at On The Border.

But underlying the celebration there was a kind of lingering sadness. No one said anything about it, we never do…it’s just there.

See, my youngest daughter Jennifer, and her husband Ben were the first of our children to make one of these announcements. Before there was a Miles, there was a little Mayer in the oven. We were all so excited…the first grandchild. But unfortunately that joy ended with a tubal pregnancy, followed by another. After two surgeries we were faced with the fact that Jenny’s body could no longer handle a “normal” pregnancy. An attempt at invitro-fertalization also failed. These disappointments, coupled with the loss of Ben’s dad in a plane crash, left us wondering how much more this young couple could handle. There were many nights that Debbie and I cried together, asking God to spare them more pain. It’s hard to see your kids hurt. Honestly, they often handled it better than us. Jenny joined an infertility group in the church and Ben has been a picture of faith in the midst of sorrow.

There have been many times over the last 3 years when I felt as though we were living the first words of the Dickens novel, Tale of Two Cities. For us it seemed that “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.

When I announced a 21 day fast for our church in January, Debbie and I immediately knew what the focus of our prayer time would be. At church we lit candles together and prayed that somehow God would bless their home with the desires of their heart. With all the needs in the world, I decided to let God sort out the selfishness or importance of that prayer. We are learning to trust him with the results, even if they aren’t what we’ve always wanted. My part is to pray…He handles motives and details.

You can imagine our joy and surprise when, earlier this week, Ben and Jenny came into my office and interrupted my study for the weekend message carrying two little bundles wrapped around the picture at the top of this blog.

Twins…scheduled to make their arrival just a few weeks after their brand new little cousins.

Wow.

To quote the great theologian, Forrest Gump: “That’s all I have to say about that”.

Pray for us.