On a Sunday after church, Ilse, 39 weeks into her pregnancy, told us she had been feeling so much better at the same moment during her two previous pregnancies which had been very special and God-blessed.

Both times there were clear signs in advance that her body was preparing for childbirth: the softening of the neck of the womb and already a bit of dilatation.

Moreover, Sara, the eldest one, came 10 days early. With Bram, the second child, born on the due date, the cervix had already completely softened and she did already have two centimetres of dilatation more than a week in advance.

That Sunday morning she had started to loose the mucous plug, which announces the delivery, but this may as well still take a week. It worried her, because two days earlier on Friday at the check-up, there had been no dilatation or softening of the cervix at all. So she asked us to pray to have it go a bit faster .... so we did.

At 10 o'clock at night the phone rang: Ilse’s water had broken. We prayed for a prosperous labour and delivery and while we were praying the Lord showed us an image of an umbilical entwining, which we prayed loose. At 11 the contractions started. Just as with the 2 previous births, these were not really painful. She chatted with the midwife, who asked her to signal her whenever she felt a contraction, so she could at least follow how it was going.

At 1.30 am Jonas came into the world very smoothly. The midwife said the umbilical cord was still twisted around his little neck, but that it came off easily.

So, in a marvellous way, we received an extra marvel of 50 cm and 3.620 kg in the church community.