Maddie’s mare, April, is due with her first foal on Saturday. She is huge, and it makes me uncomfortable just to look at her.

We were in hopes that she would go early, as Maddie took this month off for “maternity leave,” a) so she wouldn’t miss it and b) so she would have time to get the new arrival settled (read: play with the new arrival). April has not, however, had that baby. She’s been grazing to her heart’s content in the little temporary pasture that is the grassy area in the middle of our circle drive. Maddie can see her from her house (she has her own place on the property), and we can see her from ours. I seriously must look out that window 372 times a day.

Maddie was over for coffee, yesterday, talking about how she needed to have several of the other horses’ teeth done, but she was waiting until the baby was here. Then she mentioned that the farrier needed to come out for everyone’s feet, but since the baby’s hooves would need checking, she was waiting on that, too. Orion (our rescue horse) who’s been healing and putting weight on at a friend’s property, is ready to come home and be introduced to our place and herd, but, again, she was waiting until the baby was born.

Seriously, Mom, everything – EVERYTHING – is waiting on that baby!

I totally get it. Many times (quite a few for us in the last year), it seems that life comes to a virtual stand-still, as we wait on one thing to shake everything else loose. It’s maddening. It feels like you can’t make a single move, seemingly incapable of moving forward.

And you know what else?

It’s super easy to miss the beauty – the lessons – while the world has stopped spinning.

It’s so easy to keep glancing out the window at the thing that’s way out there, holding everything up, that you miss the tiny buds on the bush just on the other side of the glass. You miss the way the sunlight is hitting the barn cat’s coat, as it sleeps peacefully in the sunny patch on the porch.

You miss the way the new-found still is allowing you time to recharge, to breathe, to be, right there in the presence of the One who holds that spinning world in His hands.

Eventually, there will be a foal, wobbly, trying out new lanky legs, and nursing under a relieved momma. There will be a restored rescue horse, running, healthy, with a bunch of new friends. There will be freshly floated teeth, and newly trimmed and shod feet, all around.

Yes, eventually, all the things we wait for will come.

But will we be the better for the waiting?

Well, that part’s up to us, yes?

Be still and know that I am God. ~ Psalm 46:10 ESV

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31 ESV