The Newest Rushing

Effy Gwynne Lúthien Rushing was born on December 13, 2021 around 1:50 a.m. It was incredibly epic how she was born!

Here is the story: First of all, we were praying for a shorter labor this time around. Secondly, we were told that we were having a boy. 😀 I started feeling stronger contractions around 11 pm, and told my parents (and Allen, of course) that I wondered if the baby was coming. We had already planned on a home birth, so we texted the midwife. She told me to drink some water and a glass of wine and try to sleep! First off, I don’t do well with wine. I tried the water and tried to sleep, but we had to tell her that the contractions were too strong to be able to sleep. So she said to time the contractions. Meanwhile, they got stronger. We told my parents to go ahead and enact our plan for Ezekiel, to take him to Seth’s house. We told the midwife that the contractions were very strong (I was yelling fairly loudly–which can really help! 😀 ). She said she would come soon. Then Allen said, “Audrey! It’s a head!” And a minute or so later, Allen had delivered the baby! God answered our prayers! Labor and delivery was less than three hours!!! And Allen got to catch our baby, which he had wanted to do! After holding our baby for a bit, I gave the baby to Allen and suddenly I said, “Allen, it’s a girl!” What a pleasant surprise! 20 minutes later, the midwife came. Haha! She said, “Next time, I’ll come right away!”

The meaning of her name: Effy is the diminutive form of Euphemia (which means good speech), and of the Germanic name Elfreda (which means elf strength). Gwynne is Welsh for pure or white. Lúthien means “daughter of flowers” in one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s language. She is a literary character in Tolkien’s world. She is the daughter of the elf King Thingol and the Maia Melian (who loved flowers). Putting all of this together, her name’s significance goes something like this: A lady of noble birth and character whose speech is pure and good, with strength of an elf, which (if you take Tolkien’s view of elves, which we do) reminds us of the epic journey we are on and the eschaton wherein we will have new bodies and be pure and strong and all that God intends for us to be.