What an enjoyable evening last night at a banquet filled with friends. It was the Pregnancy Care Center's annual banquet and fund raiser and just listening to them talk about the 5,900 babies saved because mothers chose "life" over the past eleven years was astounding AND it took me back.
My entire young life was filled with "family". My mother was the eleventh of twelve children and, needless to say, there were bounteous cousins all around. My dad was the youngest of four children and there were thirteen of us "first" cousins on that side. Can't recall a time in my young life that the plan to be a wife and mother wasn't right there at the top of my list. Of course it would be a boy and a girl, just like mama and daddy had. It never occurred to me that life wasn't just that simple.
I can see Dennis, to this day, sitting at a table in the registration line at Southwestern Assemblies of God College (now University) in the fall of 1971. He was recruiting people for various reasons and thought it would be a great idea for me to be the work study secretary for "Maw Reinhold" (Mrs. Miriam Reinhold) who taught speech and directed the plays at the school. You see, he was also trying to recruit me to "try out" for this play and how perfect, if I had to work, that it would be for "Maw." Of course, it DID turn out that way (would you think it wouldn't if Dennis willed it). I was Maw's secretary AND played the role of his girlfriend in the play, "The Perfect Idiot." He had to kiss me in the script and I can tell you right now - IT WAS ALL OVER FOR ME. Now don't get me wrong, we both fought the attraction until we became engaged in September of 1973. Life was going to be PERFECT. We would get married, he would go to work for Southwestern, we would travel the world and then, at just the perfect time, we would become parents. SETTLED!!
Well, we did get married in August of 1974, he went to work at Southwestern, we did travel the world and after six years of great adventure, we were ready to have a baby. Problem was, I developed a serious health issue and pregnancy was OUT OF THE PICTURE. Dennis wasn't put off by it at all. His response was that he loved me more than life itself and we could adopt or it could just be he and I (Dennis has ALWAYS been the most positive and optimistic person on earth). We pastored a church and then moved to another city to both be on a mega-church staff. Our lives were CRAZY but the dream never died that a baby would complete our little family. Through a series of connections and miracles, a baby became available to us and we were THRILLED!
Dennis just knew that the baby would be a boy. I was "not so secretly" hoping for a girl although it really didn't matter to either one of us. We wanted a healthy baby and set out to come up with names. If a boy, he would have been Jeffrey Scott. We had two girls names: Emily Rebbecca and Sara Elizabeth. Dennis said that we would "just know" which name was right. When the call came that "SHE" had been born, Dennis immediately referred to "her" as SARA BETH. And Sara Beth she was. I can so clearly see Dennis as we (my mother had flown in to share in this moment with us) waited to see Sara for the first time. He practically ran when they brought her to us and was the first to lay eyes on this precious bundle. His first words were, "Look at her hands. She has piano fingers." He was right. Sara has long skinny fingers that played the piano, violin and harp. We took stock to make sure she had all ten fingers and toes and tried to make sure that under those pudgy cheeks, there really was a chin. We all cried as the judge declared us her guardians and set the official adoption date. Oh my, you would think we were the ONLY people to ever become parents. Dennis had been diagnosed with cancer just three weeks before Sara was born and, to be honest, I wasn't sure what we should do at that point. Her birth gave him yet another reason to fight that dreaded "C" disease and look forward to the future. He had difficulty sleeping at night during the time he was receiving daily radiation therapy. What a miraculous time of bonding for father and daughter during those long nights. He would feed her, talk to her, sing to her and rock her for countless hours. She was his princess and it was a match made in heaven. Sara was a daddy's girl from the get-go. Dennis was a kid at heart. He was always so fun loving and he would play games with her while waiting for me to run into the grocery store or at the restaurant. Two of her favorites were "Good Hand, Bad Hand" and the "Disappearing Tomato." They were both Dennis originals!
Through the years of her growing up, her Daddy was ALWAYS available to pray for her, meet her friends and teach her that God was faithful. He directed her in church plays to raise money for special events, he drove carloads of kids to camp and sat through many a recital as well as carting her to multitudinous music lessons. During her high school and college years, there was many a night that I would wake up and find him missing from the bed. When looking to see if he was okay, would find him on his knees in the living room, touching the throne of God in behalf of his girl. How grateful to God I am that He spared Dennis from death when he was so ill during his recurrence of cancer. How grateful to God I am that Sara was able to grow up with a daddy who was such a great example of being a Godly Christian, husband and father. How grateful I am to God that they both were able to experience the magical four years together at Evangel University and that he was there to watch her walk the line to graduate. How grateful to God I am that Dennis was able to walk his baby girl down the aisle at her wedding, serve she and Jason communion and pray a prayer over them that had everyone present in tears.
I listened at the Pregnancy Care Center banquet with great delight as they shared the journey of a couple who chose life. The audience was introduced to a beautiful little girl, who at a little over one year old, stole the show. It reminded me once again of how eternally grateful I am to the young lady who chose life for Sara. I can only imagine how incredibly heart wrenching it had to have been for her to decide on adoption for this precious bundle she selflessly gave birth to. The prayer that Dennis prayed at Sara's wedding (that had everyone in tears) touched on that very thing. He thanked God for the precious young woman who chose life, and because she did, Dennis & Teena were celebrating this very special moment. Because of her, Dennis and I became Mama and Daddy.
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