MORE THAN A CARVING
CHAPTER 27
A month later, Iwalade decide to do a praise retreat right in Imisi’s hospital room, her mum, Imisi’s mum and Gift also joined her. The Holy Spirit spoke to her some days back and said. “Just praise me and I will do a new thing. She wondered what new thing God wants to do in her life, all she wanted is not much, it’s just two, one, for Imisi to regain his consciousness and two, for her to deliver her baby boy safely. She was already heavy and due but she decided to take up the exercise. The worship was fire, everyone who participated felt the presence of God, it was not easy for them to stop because the worship was intensed; they wish they can just continue. Iwalade ended the worship session with ‘In Christ Alone’ and everyone goes high in the spirit, and finally the worship came to an end. After the praise session, the two mothers sat Iwalade down to have a heart to heart discussion with her. “I hope I’m safe, the two of you are acting strange.” Iwalade said to them. “Who will go first?” Mrs. Williams asked Mrs. Badmus. “You go first.” Mrs. Badmus said. “Okay.” She said and then turned to Iwalade. “Iwalade, you are due and the baby is coming any time soon but you insisted on still staying in the hospital after you put to bed.” “And I’m still not changing my mind, I am not leaving this place without the father of my child, I’m not leaving him behind.” “Iwalade, you have to put the baby into consideration.” Mrs. Badmus said. “The baby we’ll be fine here, don’t worry. At least I carried the pregnancy all through in this same hospital, trust me the baby too is already used to the environment.” She stated and the two women looked at each other. “Iwalade, hospital is not home, we have already set up the nursery in your house. I know you will not want to come to my house that is why I set it up at yours.” Mrs. Williams said. “And we’ve bought all the baby things as well.” Mrs. Badmus added. Iwalade looked at the two women sitting before her and then she shook her head slowly. “Thanks for your efforts, but no thanks. I’m staying here.” She insisted. “You know they don’t allow babies in the hospital.” Mrs. Williams reminded her. “My case is different; I carried the pregnancy all through here.” The two women looked at each other again and decided to give up. They stood up, her mum told her, she is going home, and Iwalade thanked her and bade her goodnight. “What about you ma?” Iwalade asked Mrs. Williams. “I’ll sleep over.” She answered.“Work!” She asked. “I’ll leave very early tomorrow morning.” Mrs. Williams replied. “Okay ma.” “Let me see you off.” Mrs. Williams said to Iwalade’s mum and they left Iwalade in the balcony. Outside the hospital, the two women stopped to deliberate on Iwalade’s case. “The doctors here are at your beck and call, right.” Mrs. Badmus asked. “Yes.” Mrs. Williams replied. “I suggest you instruct Iwalade’s doctors to ensure she didn’t stay in the hospital once she put to bed.” “Hmm…..that is a good idea but don’t you think that it may affect Iwalade’s mental state. Let’s just allow her do whatever pleases her, her sanity also matters.” “You are right; I didn’t weigh it from that angle.” “Good.” She said and then signaled to her driver who is already waiting to take Mrs. Badmus home. Mrs Williams went back into the hospital when the car left. She ran into Gift at the reception, she was on her way home; she had closed for the day. They exchanged greetings and part ways. Ever since Iwalade and Mrs. Williams made up, things have been great between them, they now talk freely with each other and this was a very big relief to Iwalade. She was even surprised when Mrs. Williams showed up that day just to come and join her in praise session because she mentioned it to her on phone. Mrs. Williams returned into her son’s hospital room and met Iwalade sitting beside Imisioluwa; she also picked a chair and sat next to her. Iwalade welcomed her and the two sat quietly. Iwalade’s phone rang; she smiled when she saw the caller and then picked the call. “Ireoluwa…..” “Good evening ma.” “Sorry, I should call you Mummy Sayo instead.” “Call me Ireoluwa, please, I’m still young o, I’m still Sisi.” She said and Iwalade laughed. “Okay o, how’s my baby doing?” “He is fine o, thanks. By the way, I saw you in my dream today.” “Really!” “Yes, I saw you carrying a baby girl, she is so……beautiful.” Ireoluwa said and Iwalade laughed again. “Why are you laughing?” “Nothing o.”“You don’t believe me.” “Whatever. Let God’s will be done.” “Don’t tell me scan said otherwise.” “I say, let God’s will be done o……Ireoluwa.” They spoke for few minutes, she even asked after Imisi’s mum and Iwalade told her she was right there with her, Ireoluwa told her to help her greet her. They later ended the call. “Your cousin’s wife, right.” Mrs. Williams asked. “Yes ma.” “Her baby’s name is Sayo.” “Yes, Oluwasayomipe.” Iwalade didn’t tell anyone about the sex of her baby, she only told her mum and that was because of the terrible dream she had then. Later that night, Iwalade and Mrs. Williams went to sleep. Iwalade woke up in the middle of the night and started feeling uneasy, she left her bed and went into the balcony to get fresh air but she didn’t get herself still. She started feeling serious backache and she groaned. Mrs. Williams woke up from her sleep and looked around, she did not see Iwalade, she got out of the couch where she slept and went to the balcony. “Are you okay?” She quickly walked up to her. “Backache……” She groaned. Then she started having strong contractions. “Iwalade, I think it’s time. Let me quickly call for help. She rushed out and returned with two nurses who brought in a stretcher and she was wheeled out to another hospital room, the doctor on call that night showed up, thankfully it was one of her doctors, Doctor Austin. After much effort to help her deliver the baby, the doctor concluded that she had to have a cesarean session (CS) just because of the complications at hand. Mrs. Williams signed the consent form and she was wheeled into the operating room. Mrs. Williams remembered the dream Iwalade had and started praying, pleading for God’s mercy. It was day break and Iwalade had been moved into a private hospital room but she wasn’t awake yet, the anesthesia they used on her hasn’t worn off. Due to the complications she had during labour, they had to put her to sleep instead of using the regular spinal anesthesia. While she was still asleep, everyone was already on ground, her mum, grandma, her younger brother Tosin, who drove their mum to the hospital when they got the call from Mrs. Williams at the early hours of the morning. Everyone still kept on praying because they almost lost Iwalade during the surgery, it was God’s intervention that kept her alive. Her mum was already crying, the doctors come in and out as they all kept an eye on her but they assured her family that she will be fine that the worst is over, all day, she didn’t wake up.Finally, Iwalade opened her eyes in the night, she looked around and she saw her mum sitting beside her. Mrs. Badmus jumped to her feet when she saw her open her eyes. “Mummy, where is my baby!!” “Just calm down….Iwalade.” “Where is my child?” She demanded. Her mum picked her phone and dialed a number. “Mum, I’m asking for my child and you are making phone calls.” She said. “That’s why I’m calling nau, just calm down; the doctor must attend to you first.” She said and she placed the call. Mrs. Williams walked in with Tosin, they were so happy she was awake. “Your doctor will soon be here.” Mrs. Williams said. “I don’t want to see a doctor, where is my baby?” Then she started crying. “Mummy, where is my baby.” She said to Mrs. Williams. She also turned to her brother too. “Tosin, where is my baby?” They all assured her that she will see her baby. “Your doctor needs to check you first, just calm down.” Mrs. Williams said to her. In less than two minutes, a doctor and two nurses showed up. They all exchanged greetings and then excused the doctor. “How are you feeling?” Doctor Austin asked as she checked her, the nurses took her vital signs as well as the doctor spoke with her. “I’m fine, please talk to me, nobody is talking, where is my baby?” Iwalade asked with pleading eyes. “We almost lost you, you know.” “Okay……” She said urging the doctor to continue. “Something funny happened when we cut you open in the operating room; we discovered that there were two babies.” “Twins!” “Myself and my team were surprised too, because, we did an ultrasound ten minutes before you were operated on and it still shows one baby, a boy. But we saw two babies instead; it was a boy and a girl actually.” Doctor Austin said and his countenance fell. “Doctor!! Please talk to me.” She said shaking with fear. “The boy didn’t make it, I’m sorry but the girl is alive and well.” The doctor revealed. Iwalade was feeling both joy and pain at the same time. “You should be thankful to God, sincerely; we still don’t know how the baby girl got in there.” “Lord, I’m grateful ……” She said and wept. “Instead of nothing, God gave you something.” He said. “Go bring the baby.” The doctor instructed one of the nurses and then they all left and iwalade’s people came in except Mrs. Williams. They all rally round her and she wept, she was really thankful,at least the Bible says in everything we should give thanks. “Iwalade, it is over, you fought and you conquered.” Grandma said to her. “Now pull yourself together, someone wants to meet you.” “My baby……” She said with a brightened face, and then the door opened. Iwalade looked at everybody in the room. “Mummy, grandma, Tosin. What is happening?” “You are not dreaming it’s real.” Mrs. Badmus said as Mrs. Williams stopped the wheel chair beside her and joined the others at the other side of the bed. “Hi.” He said. “Imisi.” She said and broke down in tears again. He moved closer to her pulled her into his arms. “The worst is over my love. Our tears are over.” He freed her and helped her clean her face. The nurse came in and they brought in their baby girl. The nurse gave the baby to Iwalade and she held her in her arm. She then remembered Ireoluwa’s dream who said she saw her holding a baby girl. She passed the baby to Imisi as well, he held the baby in his arms and a tear escaped his eyes. “This is a miracle baby. Mrs. Williams said and they all sighed. “Iwalade, remember what God told you.” Mrs. Badmus said. “He said ‘He will do a new thing.’ no wonder scan shows only one baby till the very end.” Iwalade said. A nurse later came in to get the baby, others too left, Imisi and Iwalade were left in the room. “So you stayed with me till the very end.” Imisi said. “Do I even deserve someone like you but I guess God gave you to me because of the love He has for me.” “I promise not to let go of your hands, I only kept my own part of the bargain and allow God do the rest but truthfully, it wasn’t an easy journey.” “I know and I’m grateful to God who saw us through.” Another nurse walked in and greeted them. “I need to take you back to your hospital room, it’s really late and both of you need to rest.” The nurse said to Imisi. He did not want to leave, Iwalade was still persuading him to go with the nurse, and then Mrs. Williams entered. “You can go, I’ll bring him myself.” She said to the nurse with a smile and she left. “Thanks mum.” He said. “Don’t mind the nurse, she doesn’t understand.” Mrs. Williams said and then move closer to Iwalade’s bed and held her hand. “Iwalade, do you remember the message you gave me sometimes ago, you told me the Lord said ‘affliction will not rise the second time,’ that is what I held on to all this while.”“Hmm….God is indeed faithful; His promises are indeed yea and amen.” Iwalade said to her. “Who would have thought that we can have Imisioluwa back.” Mrs. Williams said and swallowed hard, she had to resist the tears from falling. Iwalade noticed this and shook her head to stop her from crying and she understood her. Then they both smiled. She doesn’t need to cry again because God has turned her mourning into dancing. “Let me excuse the two of you now.” Mrs. Williams said and looked at the time, you too have just an hour, you both need to rest, and she said and left the room. The two held hands and kept staring into each other’s eyes, they discussed about the next chapter of their life after leaving the hospital. Iwalade said, she’ll be raising the baby in her house and Imisi accepted, he even joked about moving in with her. “You want us to have another baby outside wedlock, right.” Iwalade said softly. “No…Reason why we have to get married soon.” “Marriage….” She drawled. “We are getting married, we didn’t come this far to become a baby daddy and mummy. You are the love of my life and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” “Okay.” She said and he held her hands and caressed them. “Can my heart ever stop loving you? No wonder my heart kept on craving for you Iwalade but now I realize you are more than just a craving to me, God actually brought you into my life divinely.” “I don’t regret it at all, God bless the day our path crossed.” She said and Mrs. Williams returned. “Its one hour already!” Imisioluwa said to her mum. “Yes.” She replied her son. “Okay, sleep well my love.” Imisi said and Iwalade coughed, Mrs. Williams was in the room with them. “I will.” She said shyly and as if that was not enough, Imisi took her lips and kissed her but she pulled away. “Imisi, your Mum.” She whispered. “If I care, I wouldn’t have slept with you.” He said and kissed her all over again. Mrs. Williams looked away and when they were through, they bade Iwalade goodnight and she wheeled Imisioluwa out. Iwalade didn’t sleep, instead she lifted up her voice and worship God who look beyond her imperfection and still gave her a new song to sing. She picked her phone, plug in her earpiece and selected Dunsin Oyekan’s song ‘Fragrance to Fire’ has she sings along: ‘First it was fragrance, and then it turned to fire, My worship is my weapon,This is how I win my battles.’ The song was on repeat, she sang with the whole of our heart until she was satisfied. Then she remembered the word of God which says in the book of Isaiah 61:7; ‘For your shame, I will give you double.’ That was exactly what God did for her; He gave her and Imisi a daughter and she will forever be grateful to God who turned her mourning into dancing. She worshipped God to her fill and then slept afterwards. The next day, Imisioluwa came to Iwalade’s hospital room. He was wheeled in by a nurse who left immediately. The two looked much better that very day. They both asked about each other’s health and talk some more. “Give me gist nau, what happened when I wasn’t here?” He said referring to his state of unconsciousness. “Plenty gist, including those I can’t even talk about.” Iwalade replied. “You and my mum, right.” He said and she smiled. He carried a sad look. “We are good now, let’s just move on.” She said encouraging him to cheer up. “Now, let me gist you.” “I’m all ears.” He said and smiled too. “Ireoluwa put to bed last month.” “It’s a lie; you mean you both got pregnant at about the same……” “Yes, and I remember we were the counselors.” She said and they both laughed. “Hold on, that means you were already pregnant by the time you were giving me the news of her pregnancy then.” “Yes and I never knew.” “Do you remember you didn’t take that morning-after pill?” “I didn’t remember until the day the doctor confirmed that I was pregnant.” “Hmm, everything happened for a reason.” “Yea….” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’m really happy for them.” “Yea, me too. They had a baby boy.” She informed and gave him more gists. ****** The baby was christened in the hospital since the doctors has not discharged the parents. The baby girl was named ‘Iyanuoluwa’ meaning the miracle of God. Two weeks later, Imisi, Iwalade and the baby were discharged from the hospital, their leaving was a ceremonial one, almost all the staff in the hospital followed themoutside the hospital as they bade them goodbye. Their case was a wonder and the staff can’t just stop talking about how good God is to that family, because the truth was that, no one believed Imisioluwa could ever wake up again because the only thing that was keeping him then was the life support machine. And the baby girl’s appearance was still a mystery to them as well. Finally they got back home and life continued. Imisioluwa spend most of his time with his baby and Iwalade. It was so comforting to be alive to see and hold his own flesh and blood and still have the love of his life by his side. Imisi returned back to the family company as the CEO and the time he resumed office most of all his enemies had been trampled under feet. Few weeks later, Iwalade’s father returned from abroad and narrated his ordeal, he was in prison for good fourteen years, he killed his wife’s lover, the judge ruled the case as man slaughter rather than murder and he was sent to prison, he was later released on parole. He had nothing, the wife had already fled the country with the two children she had for him, so he had no choice than to return to Nigeria and he returned empty. Iwalade, her siblings and her mum had no choice but to forgive him and accept him back, he now lives with Mrs. Badmus in the house Iwalade built for her mum. Their father’s appearance was hard for Tosin the last child who was meeting his biological father for the first time but after much plea, he accepted him. EPILOGUE Three months later, Imisioluwa and Iwalade had a quiet wedding, just family alone, not even friends and the two lived a happy life, and their home can be likened to a paradise on earth. Two years later, they gave birth to another set of twins, a boy and a girl. Ireoluwa graduated with second class upper and went for her National Youth Service Corps, she served in Ile-Ife so she was able to manage her home and the service year at the same time with her husband’s help and they were doing great. They equally had another boy a year after her service. Years later, Iwalade had moved from been a script writer into a movie maker and director as her brand became a very popular household name in the country. And the first movie she shot was based on the true life story of her mother inlaw and the movie turned out great in the cinema. Thanks to Imisioluwa, Iwalade’s dream of becoming one of the best movie makers in the world became a reality. Imisioluwa pioneered it and gave her all the support she needed; moral, emotional and most importantly financial support, I mean they shot movies worth millions of naira and Iwalade had no choice than to submit and cherish his destiny helper and husband for the rest of her life.
Author’s Note:Marriage is not a child’s play, at least if you don’t know that before, you should know that by now after reading Iwalade’s story. Marriage is more than fine girl meet fine boy and fall in love, marriage is more than feelings or emotions. You should be a helpmeet to that man or woman you want to marry, you are a helper. Therefore, the question is; who is that person that you have the capacity to help? Who is that person that you can help fulfil his/her destiny? You are to marry someone whom you can help to actualize each other’s dreams. From the story, Imisioluwa’s destiny would have been cut short but his helpmeet (Iwalade) showed up and he was able to live long to fulfil destiny and vice versa. Marriage is spiritual and should be handled spiritually. Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot afford to marry without the leading of God; there are some families that if you dare marry into them, you are doom for life except for God’s intervention. There are strong and terrible curses that run in some lineage, which you can’t just bumb into without being prepared for it spiritually, reason why you must allow God give you the go ahead. He knows what you and I can handle, remember He said, He will not tempt us more than what we can handle. For instance, let’s look at Mrs. Williams, she was confronted with a battle and lost her husband in the process, she almost lost her only son as well. Iwalade was faced with the same battle but she came out triumphantly, God gave her the victory. God knows your capacity and capability, let Him handle the affairs of your life and you shall live a life of peace and have a glorious end. One more thing to learn from the story of Mrs. Williams is that God specifically told her what to do before she got married but she decided to cut corners forgetting that obedience is better than sacrifice and no one can outsmart God. The consequences was grave, she became a widow at a very young age. Lastly, rememeber that Jesus loves you, please give your heart to Him and you will never regret it. And till I come your way next time, please remain blessed and do to others what you want them to do to you. Thank you all for reading ‘More Than A Craving.’ I pray your pocket will not run dry in Jesus name. God bless you.
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