Dinah kept her voice soft and encouraging. “That’s right. Keep steady deep breaths while you rest. Let me know when you start to feel the next pain.”
She focused on what she was seeing amidst the mass of blood and fluid, and the tangle of dark hair made her heart surge. The babe’s head had nearly emerged.
CHAPTER31
Panic flared through Dinah once more, mixing with the wonder of seeing her niece or nephew for the first time. “The babe is coming, Naomi. You should see how dark her hair is.” She should try to temper the excitement in her voice, but she couldn’t. Not with so many emotions churning inside her.
“It’s a girl? Is she alive?” Naomi sounded weak, yet hopeful.
Tears rushed through Dinah’s defenses, but so did a laugh. “I don’t know. I can’t tell yet. There’s only a mop of dark hair.”
“Oh.” Naomi’s cry came as her face twisted with another pain.
Dinah focused on talking her sister through each step, guiding the tiny babe out into the cold, uncomfortable world. The child still hadn’t breathed by the time Naomi pushed the last of her out, but Dinah tried to remind herself that wasn’t unusual.
She was so small, barely larger than Dinah’s hand as she scooped up the delicate fully-formed baby girl and turned her face down in her palm. “Come on, sweet one. Let’s wake you up.”
She couldn’t tell if the pulse thrumming through her hand was her own or the child’s, but she gave a few hard thumps to the child’s back to urge a cough and clear the lungs.Lord, please.
She turned the babe a little to see her face. The tiny mouth was open, the lips feathering in an O as they searched for air.
Hope rose within Dinah. “That’s the way.” She repeated the steps, massaging the child’s tiny back afterward to stimulate her lungs. “Let’s clear the passage so you can breathe.”
She still couldn’t feel the lungs expand, but as she started to turn the babe again, a tiny cough pressed through her little body. “Oh.” Dinah’s own breath whooshed out with the strength of her relief.
“Is she alive?” The fearful hope in Naomi’s voice pressed in Dinah’s chest.
“She’s breathing now.” She didn’t want to give too much encouragement yet. There were still so many obstacles for this precious new life to overcome before her survival would feel secure.
She wrapped the babe in the blanket Lillian handed over. The child’s lungs did seem to be working well. Dinah needed to do a full inspection, but maybe a minute for mother and child to meet would do them both good.
The wonder on Naomi’s face as she took her daughter and tucked her close made all the fear, all the effort, all the hardship insignificant.
Soft footsteps sounded behind her, and she glanced back. Jericho stood behind her. Naomi looked like she wasn’t ready to hand over her daughter yet, and the babe was making sweet cooing noises—a good sign.
For her own part, Dinah wanted so much to sink into Jericho’s strength for just a moment. From the instant he’d found her in the shack amputating Thomas’s leg, his steady presence and unwavering help had been a relief.
More than that. A gift from above, as though God had brought him to her at the very second she needed him.
Certainty filled her spirit. She’d felt from the beginning, when she first laid eyes on that duplicitous advertisement, that the Lord was guiding them. So many times along this winding path, she’d questioned whether she’d heard wrong. Or if she’d missed a direction the Father tried to give them.
But God was faithful. Even when she didn’t listen well, He could still use her mistakes to accomplish His will. And when she yielded to Him fully, He could bring her to this Promised Land more wonderful than she’d ever imagined.
She wiped her hands on the cloth she’d been using as a towel, then pushed to her feet. She had so much dried blood on her skin and clothing, she might need a full day to get clean.
But when she turned to face Jericho, he wasn’t looking at the stains beneath her fingernails. His eyes searched her face, meeting her gaze with a longing that made her own spirit respond.
“I’m sorry I let you leave.” His voice rasped with intensity. “I’m sorry I was bull-headed and blind and…” He paused as his throat worked. “…and afraid. None of this would have happened if I had listened to you.” He motioned toward Gilead. “And my brothers.” Once more, the nob at his throat bobbed. “And to God. He’s been trying to get my attention a while, but I was stubborn.”
Again, the tears flowed freely down her face. Could this really be happening? Had Jericho chosen to yield to the Father, to trust instead of letting fear control him?
He looked hesitant. “I’m sorry my actions brought all this pain.” He nodded toward Naomi, then met her gaze again. “Can you forgive me?”
She swallowed and used a sleeve to wipe her eyes.
His brows tented in concern, a worry she could ease with a single action.
She took that step, moving forward into his arms.
