The Breast Milk Incident!

After the birth of my son, I began pumping breast milk and storing it in a chest freezer to build up my supply for when I returned to work. One day after a pumping session, I went to the chest freezer to add more milk and noticed that the already frozen breast milk looked different. I took out one of the gallon bags that was filled with breast milk storage bags and noticed that half of my stash had thawed!  The electric plug somehow reset, shutting off the deep freezer, therefore slowly thawing out my frozen breast milk for what I assumed had been for many hours.

 I stood silent in disbelief and shock thinking about all of the hard work, many hours sitting, and patiently pumping breast milk. I freaked out and the tears started rolling!

I took my supply to the kitchen to try to figure out what looked thawed or what looked frozen so that I could sort through to figure out what I could save. As I was looking through the storage bags of breast milk, I realized that over half my stash had thawed to some degree….I am talking over 50 oz. of breast milk!  When I realized the damage done I quickly thought about how much milk and time I would need to replace it. So I cried…again, all that hard work I felt had gone to waste so I just continued to cry with the feeling of defeat. 50 oz. may not seem like a lot and I am not sure who coined the phrase “don’t cry over spilled milk” but that person definitely did not breastfeed or use a breast milk pump. I was distraught for a while trying to weigh my options and the risks of deciding to keep the thawed breast milk since it was still cold or to not take the risk and just throw it away. Of course, for the safety of my child, I chose the option of throwing away the thawed out breast milk that I could not use. 

After calming down, a few hours later I called my mom and told her about the tragedy that happened earlier. After I gave my heart felt story, my mom’s response was … “okay”? She did not seem to be getting it so I ran down the list of all the hard work and the hours it took to pump all those ounces. I also informed her that going forward I would have to pump many ounces in order to replace the milk I had to throw away. Her response was simple, “is that all the milk God is going to provide to you?" There was silence. In my mind, I was thinking, “Excuse me ma’am!” Is that all you have to say after I cried my eyes out earlier throwing away many dedicated hours of pumping this pure liquid gold that feeds my child? My mom went on to simply question,

“Is God not going to provide you with more milk? I did not receive what my mom said for a while because I was seeking some sympathy or some understanding about this incident but nope, she gave none.

I share this story to say that Jesus is our Jehovah Jireh, which means “The Lord Will Provide”.

Matthew 6:31 states “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them“.

Philippians 4:19 states “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

 There were times that I had plenty and other times I have had significantly less and even after losing many ounces of preciously pumped breast milk, my son always had enough. As my mother said, the milk lost was not all the milk I was going to produce and that the Lord was going to provide for my child without any lack. So whether you have concern of future provision in any area, know that our God is fully aware of your needs and will provide.