Читать книгу Serving Well - Jonathan Trotter - Страница 28

by Elizabeth

I had a good day today. Yes, it’s true. I had a good day yesterday too. And not just “good for Cambodia,” but honest to goodness, downright good.

The November before I moved here, I climbed a twenty-foot pole. And jumped off it. (I know you’re all asking yourselves if this is the same nonathletic Elizabeth Hunzinger you thought you knew.) I climbed it with no fear. But when I got to the top, I froze. The transition from crouching at the top of the pole to standing on the top of the pole was incredibly frightening. It’s the shortest part, about one second of motion, but it’s the most difficult. And I needed Jonathan to coach me through it. Once I was standing, I felt fine again.

It’s the same in labor. Transition, that part of labor just before full dilation, is the shortest part. It’s also the most intense and the place where a mom doubts herself. She needs help to get through it. (Jonathan claims that since he did this for me four times, I owe him four doula fees).

In training we learned about the “Chaos Bridge,” which is an analogy for transition. We start out settled and stable, move into a period of unsettlement with all its farewells, and then into the bouncy bubbly transition. We start to come out of it while resettling, and then finally reach a new settled state.

When I was neck-deep in missionary transition, friends on both continents supported me with prayers and encouragement. I couldn’t have made it through without their doula-ing, as all my birthie friends would say.

Transition. The most terrible part. The shortest part. Now I know with certainty that it doesn’t last forever. And I can assure the next person I see experiencing transition that it does indeed end. It’s painful, but it won’t last long. Not much longer now. I promise.

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“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me”

(Ps 23:4 ESV).