Maneuverings of God

A friend recently asked if I had any extra breastmilk to spare. It’s very interesting how God works. If Catalina had not gotten sick, I never would have pumped like I have. Although I only pumped once or twice a day (at most), I did have some bags of milk to give her. Our babies aren’t too far apart in age, too.

With my previous babies, I hardly pumped. I would pump the day I needed to be out — to go shopping, attend a meeting, or go on a date. I didn’t have anything stored in the freezer. Never used storage bags and never even used an electric pump. Pumping seemed like such a hassle to me. Simple was always the way I wanted to go through motherhood. So I just breastfed direct. There was no need to purchase a sterilizer or a bottle warmer either. And I did fine with Philips’ manual pump.

However, my househelp lost the one part of the pump that is most difficult to replace. I had another one coming in from the US but not for several weeks. So when Catalina got pneumonia I had no choice but to buy a new pump. She was not feeding. If I did not pump my supply would decrease.

I was upset at first. I felt like crying because it was another thing to worry about on top of caring for Catalina. Of all the househelp that could have been responsible for the lost part it was the one lady who was forced to resign because she had anger issues. So there was no way of recovering it. Yet once again, this was part of God’s plan.

I went to Mothercare to buy a pump and picked up a single Medela pump that was practically the same price as Philips’ manual one. If this was my first child, I might have considered buying a dual pump. Since Catalina is probably my last, I didn’t want to pay for a dual.

The Medela pump worked very well. It was noisy but that didn’t bother me since I pumped at home. Edric would sometimes say, “shhh” in the mornings but most of the time he was joking.

Because the electric pump was easier to use than my old manual one, I was more motivated to pump. Even though I did not have hundreds of bags of milk (like some of my friends do when they are breastfeeding), I was pretty happy to see the freezer filling up with my milk.

And then my friend asked me if I had any spare and that’s when I realized that God’s hand had orchestrated a series of events for her sake. He got me to start pumping milk when I normally do not and he allowed the part of my manual pump to be lost so I would replace it with a more efficient one.

I just think its amazing how God works to meet the needs of his children. My friend is going to require more milk for her baby and I don’t know if I can pump enough, but I’m sure God will provide someway somehow, if not through me then another mom.

What we may sometimes perceive as inconveniences to us and detours in our own plans (like Catalina’s hospitalization or losing the vacuum seal on my manual pump), these are part of his bigger plan. If we could step outside our microscopic viewpoint — the one that tends to fixate on problems — we would realize that these are divine maneuverings by an all-knowing God. His intention is to make us more useful for good work, so we can become channels of blessing and love.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 NASB)