The Best Job Ever!

The first thing that Seth said to me this morning, as he was looking out our bedroom window at the sunrise was, "God has to love his job!" Then we went on to discuss how God definitely has the best job in the world. He gets to decide what colors to use in the sunset and sunrise, He picks how many clouds he wants in the sky, He gets to pick which stars He wants us to see each night. The list could go on and on about the cool things that God gets to decide every single day and to think that most of them are just for our enjoyment. Yep, I think God has the best job ever and I'm pretty sure He LOVES every minute of it!

Turtle Tragedy

This is our digital thermometer turtle. Isn't he cute. I think we should name him. He tells us if Jericho's bath water is to hot or to cold or when we have it just right. I know it's crazy the things they have now a days for baby's but we have it (thanks Moni) and we use it. As you can see our poor little turtle has been attacked!

This is what attacked it. I know he looks harmless but give him a squeaky toy or a tennis ball and he'll do some damage. I don't know how our little turtle got into this ferocious animals hands, it must have happened when I was cleaning out the bathroom closet. I thought I had put Mr. Turtle safely away and then went to join Seth and Jericho in the other room when I heard a strange noise, yet it was very quiet, too quiet. I don't have a toddler yet but it was one of those times that I knew someone was in trouble for being naughty. I went to check it out, but I was to late. Poor Mr. T's hand had already been chewed right off. The good news is that he still works great. He just swims a little slower.

I don't know what got into Gamba he knows what toys are his and what ones aren't. I think he was having a jealous toddler moment. Ya know those times when the toddler, who loves his baby sibling, does something really naughty because his world has just been turned up side down. He just wanted us to know that he needs some loving too. I'll have to go out and play him!

Held

Glad to hold Gideon

Jericho is one month and one day old today. Gideon was one month and one day old when I got to hold him for the first time. December 21, 2005 I remember like it was yesterday. As Seth and I walked into the NICU, before we even got to Gideon's bed, Gloria, his nurse that day, asked if I had held him yet. I stopped in my tracks, I hadn't but I couldn't answer, I was hoping that she would ask if I would like to hold him, but I couldn't let my heart go there if it wasn't going to happen. See Gideon was still on a ventilator and when babies in the NICU are on the ventilator no one gets to hold them. He was just getting better from a lung problem and it didn't look like he was going to be off the ventilator any time soon. Seth made it very clear that I had not held Gideon yet, but that I definitely wanted to. Gloria had worked in the NICU for many years and said that Gideon was doing very good and that if I was comfortable with holding him, even though he still had a breathing tube, she was okay with me holding him for a little while. She made if very clear to me to not expect to hold Gideon again until he got the tube out because most nurses aren't comfortable with it, she also instructed me to not even ask if I could hold him. At that moment I would have agreed to anything to hold my sweet boy. Gloria warned me that sometimes preemies don't like being held and if Gideon wasn't tolerating it she was going to put him right back in his incubator. The second Gideon got in my arms he took a deep breath and settled right in. All of his stats level out and were right where they should be. It was wonderful to feel his sweet, tiny body against my skin. I couldn't believe I was actually holding my son instead of staring at him through some glass. It was the best Christmas gift I have ever receive. I thank God for the precious memory of holding my son. It is something I will never forget; I never thought it would be the only time that I would get to hold my son but because it was it made the moment that much sweeter. I am also very thankful for the numerous times that I have gotten and will continue to get to hold Jericho. The Lord is faithful!

Enjoying Jericho

What's in the Name? Jericho

I have had many people ask where Seth and I got the name Jericho. So because of that and to celebrate the fact that Jericho is one month old today (I can't believe it) I thought I would share the story behind her name.

The day I found out I was pregnant I was home by myself and had the TV on. As I was walking from one of the back rooms into where the TV was, the screen was black with big white letters that said, "JERICHO" as soon as I saw it I thought, "I love that name for a little girl." There is a TV show that is called Jericho and it was the advertisment for when it was on. I asked Seth what he thought of the name when he got home and he liked it but wanted to know the meaning. Well we found that it in Arabic it means "moon city" We didn't like that meaning so we put the name on the back burner.

One day when I was praying for the baby, I felt like the Lord told me that Seth and I were going to have the urge to hold on to this baby because we have already lost two, but that we needed to raise her with an open hand. We needed to totally devote her life over to the Lord and trust Him. He was instructing us to not hold on too tight. I felt like God was telling me that He had plans for this child and Seth and I were going to have to trust Him as we let our daughter go and be who she was called to be.

Later on in the pregnancy, I was reading the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho. In my bible when Joshua is talking to the Isrealites about taking over the city of Jericho he says, "Jericho and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord." The word devoted had an astrick (footnote) next to it and the footnote said that the Hebrew term (for devoted) refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord. This is exactly what the Lord told us to do with our daughter, devote her to the Lord. And just as Jericho is not our first child, but the first we will raise, the city of Jericho was not the first one handed over to the Isrealites, but it was the first time Joshua led them. The story felt like it lined up with the pregnancy and what the Lord was telling us.

It seemed that we would always go back to Jericho but again we had a hard time with the meaning. For awhile I wanted to spell it Gericho because Geri with a "G" looked girlie to me than with a "J" plus we have Grace and Gideon and I was really having a hard time giving up the whole "G" thing. Seth on the other hand, really didn't want another "G" name especially Gericho. He just didn't like how it looked at all and made that very clear. So if we were going to do Jericho it was going to be with a "J" period.

I was about 8 weeks from my due date, we still didn't have a name that we were both sold on and liked the meaning of, and Seth was freaking out. He wanted a name and he wanted it picked out now! I was with him but knew that it would come sooner or later. He came home from work one day and said why don't we look for a meaning that we like and maybe a name will come up. Seth wanted something that meant aroma or fragrance. He felt like the Lord told him the baby would bring an aroma or fragrance of God's presence to people. As I was looking online I stubbled across the Hebrew meaning of Jericho which is fragrance (the city of Jericho in the Bible used to be surrounded by orchards). I called Seth because I couldn't believe it. It was the name we loved with the meaning that we wanted - what a "God thing." When we found that out there was no more changing our minds. We would name our daughter Jericho!

What's in the name?

I wrote this post for my myspace page when I was pregnant with Jericho. In my next post I'm going to explain why we pick her name.


One of my favorite things about having a baby is getting to pick out a name. I love names and there meanings and all the different spellings. It's funny how when you get pregnant there are names that you've always liked but think no it doesn't fit this baby maybe it will the next one or maybe it will never come up again with any of your other babies. How do you know it doesn't fit the baby, you haven't even meat the baby, you hardly know the baby, but somehow you know that certain names just don't fit. As fun as it is picking out a name can be very scary because it's with the child for the rest of their lives. What if they hate it? What if they get made fun of because of it? It would be all our fault. What if there are horrible nicknames that you never thought of? What if people spell it wrong all the time? What a pain I know I have one of those names. What if they pronounce it wrong and they kids spends their whole life giving the people the right pronunciation. Would it drive them nuts or would they be ok with it because they actually like their name? Would that be a miracle if they actually liked their name? How many people like their name? Right now we have one name that we think we are going to call her (sorry we're not telling till she's here) but it sounds better as a middle name. Which brings me to another question if we call her by her middle name will she dread every first day of school when they call her by her first name and everyone looks around going who is that and then she says I go by my middle name. How will she decide how to sign things? Will she want to go by her first name when she gets older? Will we be ok with that? Seth is one of these middle name kids. So we've had many discussions on if it's worth it or not. Seth has lived, I love his name, and it fits him. He is such a Seth much more so than a Philip (his first name.) I can't see Seth ever going by Philip but he did say he's thought about it. My brother is also one of these middle name kids and when he got to college he started going by his first name. People who knew him as both don't know what to call him does it matter? Another reason for all of the questions is that we do like names that are different. How different can you go? I want people to think oh that's such a pretty name it's different but I really like it. Not, wow that name is really different what were they thinking when they named her? Anyway as you can see we've been thinking about names. Like I said I love the process of picking out a name for our children but it always raises so many questions. Let me know what you guys think. Do you like your name, is it a different one, are you called by your middle name? I'd love to here from ya!

Oh the possibilities!

When I take the baby out people always comment on her, if any of you have been pregnant or had a small baby, you know how that goes. I found it funny that today when I was out, it was the older gentlemen that were commenting about Jericho. There were two different men that pretty much said the same thing. I can't tell you how sweet it was to watch these men gaze with wonder at my child. They were in awe of her. They could have stood and watched her all day. As I was getting ready to part ways with one of the men he paused and took one last look at Jericho and said, "Oh the possibilities!" With that he looked at me and smiled and was on his way. For some reason that comment choked me up. It took me back to when I was pregnant with Jericho and a man came up to me at church and said, "Miss, you don't know who I am, but I want you to know that that child (he points to my belly) has an amazing calling on it's life." That's all he said and then he walked away and left me in tears. Although these men were all talking about my daughter I felt like the Lord was reminding me that there are possibilities in life everywhere and if we don't take time to stop and look around we will miss them.

Hiccups & Sneezes

Can things like hiccups and sneezes can be hereditary? I'm asking because if they are Jericho has gotten her sneezes from her daddy. Seth sneezes twice every time that's it usually no more but almost always twice as does Jericho. From day one Jericho has sneezed twice, every once in awhile she will only sneeze once but most times it's twice just like Seth. It blows my mind that it's even a possibility that you can inherit something as a sneeze. If sneezes can be passed down then I'm sure hiccups can too. If that's the case I'm pretty sure Jericho gets her hiccup abilities from me. I know baby's are known for getting the hiccups but I think Jericho gets them more than normal. I've heard that baby's can get them if they don't burp well after they eat. Well, the video is about an hour after she ate and she burped very well. Jericho gets the hiccups all the time for no reason at all, like me. So I ask you, do you think hiccups and sneezes can be hereditary? Or do you think that baby's just hiccup a lot and that it's just a coincidence that Jericho sneezes twice like Seth. Let me know what you think!

Clean is good, very good!

This is what my kitchen looked like this morning. After being sick for 3 days (very sick) and my husband being swamped at work things started piling up. You could pretty much take a picture of any room in our house and this is what it looked like. Yesterday I was starting to feel better but not enough to care about my house being a disaster. Today I was feeling much better and my messy house was driving me nuts. So I went to work and in between feeding, changing, playing with, and rocking Jericho, believe it or not I got most of the house clean and all the laundry done. I'm as tired as can be my house is clean! I even managed to put clean sheets on the bed. I can't tell you how much I love clean sheets! To jump in the shower right before bed and to crawl into clean sheets is pure bliss! I still need to hit up the floors and clean the bathroom, but if someone were to stop by I would not be mortified for them to see my house. I like clean. Clean is good, very good!

3-0 Go Pack Go!

Because the Green Bay Packers are 3-0! Nobody thought they would be doing so well this year. Next week in honor of Favre breaking the all time touchdown record, he only needs one more, and the Packers being 4-0 (I hope) I'll bust out the whole outfit that goes with the binkie - it's cute!

GO PACKERS!!

For those of you that aren't Packer fans or even football fans for that matter you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. That's ok, but I'm a Packer fan and I always will be a Packer fan so your going to hear about them from time to time. If you want me to explain more, like who Favre is (although that question might hurt a little bit because everyone should know who the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL is) just ask.

Love of the Game & the Girls

VOLLEYBALL. I love it! I got to play last night for the first time in 9 months and it was wonderful! Volleyball has always been enjoyable and relaxing to me. And the women on the team that I am playing with have been the best friends I could ask for. I'm glad to be able to start another season with them as I start another season in my life.

When Seth and I moved here 3 years ago I knew no one. We stared attending the church where Seth is now the children’s pastor. One of the first weeks that we attended, there was an announcement in the bulletin saying that some women from the church were starting a volleyball team and they were looking for more players. Well if you mention volleyball, I will come running, so I hooked up with the head pastors’ wife, who was in charge of the team, and I was once again part of a team.

When I joined the team I didn’t expect much. It was group of women that I didn’t know that I would play ball with once a week. What I did know was that most of them had never played before, I was a little nervous about this. See I’ve played at the college level and am very competitive, not a good combination when you’re playing with people who have never played before. I was hoping to make a few friends and to enjoy the game I love despite the lack of experience on the team. I was interested to see how hard both of these tasks might turn out to be.

Well, my volleyball girls have become so much more than just some women that I play ball with once a week. They have become some of my best friends. They have walked with me through some of the best times in my life and some of the worst times in my life. As I struggled through my first bed rest and a miscarriage, the joy of another pregnancy but the disappointment of another high risk pregnancy and more bed rest. The joy of the birth of my son but the scare of a premature birth. Then the death of my son. Through all this they encouraged, prayed, called, and were just there when I needed them. Then one more pregnancy and one more bed rest but no problems with this one and the joy of getting to hold my full term daughter. My volleyball girls have been there through all of this and everything in-between. Among all the babies and bed rest, volleyball and the girls I play with have been a safe haven for me. They have saved my spot on the team every time I had to leave and welcomed be back on the court with open arms; I’m so grateful. These women have been soooooooo much more than just a few girls I play ball with. I never would have guessed what treasures I would find as I joined the team 3 years ago. I thank God that he used my love for the game to bring me lifelong friends.

In case you were wondering despite the lack of experiance we had at the beginning we are actually pretty good and have gotten a TON better. It's been fun to see and be a part of the progress.

To all my volleyballers out there thank you so much for EVERYTHING! You'll never know how much you mean to me. I love you girls!

Beginning of a long and beautiful friendship

Many of you have asked me how the puppy is doing with Jericho. Gamba's been so great with her. I think he knows that she is part of the family. At times he does get a little excited, but somehow he knows when he needs to walk away. It's so funny because we haven't told him to leave Jericho alone when he's excited we've just told him to stay down, he's a little dog so he tends to put his front legs up on things or people when he wants to get closer look. I think he has more self-control, buy walking away when he knows he needs to, than I do.

This is the chair that I usually sit and nurse Jericho in. It is now Gamba's favorite chair to sit by or under. I think it's like a "I got your back" kind of thing for him. Gamba NEVER used to curl up in front of this chair, until Jericho came home, now if were in the living room that's were he is.

He's also very curious about the baby. If Jericho is crying or has the hiccups Gamba goes to check and make sure she is ok and that someone is taking care of her. If she cries and I don't pick her up right away he give me this look that says, "Umm she's not happy and I can't do anything so you need to!" or "I can't believe your not going to get her." I never thought a dog could make me feel guilty. Every time we bring him inside the first thing he does now is to look to see where she is. It's so cute! I think this is the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship.

Blazer Blues

Two months ago we put almost $1,000 getting a tune up on our car and getting a few other things fixed. We don't have a car payment so we thought it would be worth it. We have only had one car for about two and a half years and it's worked for us, mostly because I've been on bed rest and haven't been able to go anywhere. Our hope was to continue to make it work for another year while we took our time, saved some money, and found another car that we would like to buy. Our blazer has been a pretty good car and we were thinking it still had a few good years in it and that our plan would work for us. Well, we thought wrong. About 3 weeks ago, when I was as big as a house and due any day, our car started acting up. When you only have one car and are due any day you really don't want to have your car in the shop because what happens when you go into labor with no car. At the same time you don't want to go to your garage, when your in labor, only to have your car not start. So, what would you do? We decided to not get it fixed and PRAY (Oh how we prayed) that it worked when it was time to go to the hospital. Well the Lord answered our prayers and we made it to the hospital and back with no car problems and the car has been running, not well mind you, for the last 3 weeks. We took it to our mechanic on Wednesday and he said he thought the engine was going, NOT what we wanted to hear. So, again we're thinking OK we'll start seriously looking at cars now but drive the blazer till it stops working. Well, it stopped working last night. We thought we would have a little more time than that to start looking and get an idea of where we were headed. We once again find ourselves in a situation where all we can do is trust God. We've had no time to save any money as we had hoped and we are going to have to make a decision very quickly (Seth has to get to work somehow) these facts don't settle well with me.

This is the conclusion that I've come to: God knew things were going to happen this way so we're just going to have to trust him to guide us as we make these quick decisions. I know real deep right, well sometimes I need to be reminded of the obvious.

Lost Treasures Found!

These pictures are two of many that Seth and I thought we would never see. Gideon was no more than 3 days old. As we were leaving the NICU one night I dropped our camera on the floor and it stopped working. I was a mess because some of the only pictures we had of Gideon were on there. Our precious pictures were lost. We didn't have the money to go buy another camera so one of our friends let us barrow her camera for a few days till Seth convinced me to buy one. Money or not we bought a new camera and somehow the Lord provided the money. Anyway back to the old camera, we have tried a few times to get the pictures off of it but it never worked. I cried every time we tried and it didn't work. Well, for some reason I decided to try one more time. I charged the batteries, hooked the camera into the computer, crossed my fingers, and prayed. Guess what!?! It worked! We have many good pictures of Gideon from our new camera and from our friends camera but knowing that there were some pictures that we never saw, well my heart ached at the thought. So tonight as I sit here looking at the pictures of my son that I thought we lost forever and then looking down in my arms and seeing my daughter I can't help but cry and thank God for both.

Homemade

I told you that Jericho and I were going to relax today and we did, but we also had a little fun with another photo shoot. Jericho has been given many beautiful homemade blankets, booties, hats, and outfits and I wanted to show them off. So here ya go. Here are pictures of all her homemade goodies.
Great Grandma Truesdale (my grandma) made this blankie.

The blanket was make by my friend Kellie, the hat by Seth's cousin Savanna who is only 14, and the booties were made by Jericho's G.G. (Great Grandma Rayanne who is my grandma.)

My sister Thea made the precious moments cross stitch and the blanket was made by Becky a friend from church that worked with Seth.

This blanket was made by the receptionist, Sally, at our church (I love the hearts on it, I don't know how she did that) and the booties were made by a friend of a friend of my mom's, if that makes sense, who works at a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and heard about what happened with Gideon. She makes booties for all her NICU babies and wanted to make some for Jericho; how sweet is that.

Jericho's Great Auntie Paige (my aunt) made this blanket. The back of the blanket is in the next picture.

This outfit, that also has matching booties, was made by Miss Jackie the receptionist at Elim Bible Institute.

Everything you see in this picture was made by Rose a sweet lady that goes to our church.

Mrs. Button, another lady that goes to our church, made this blanket for Jericho. I love that it's reversible.

Seth plays softball with a bunch of guys from the church and one of the wives made this, I know her as Mrs. Sweetness (Sweetness is her husbands nickname)

My little sister Tori made this with some of the kids she was babysitting for. It goes perfectly with Jericho's lady bug nursery theme, so we have it hanging on her bedroom door.

This picture is for my sake. These are all the things that were made for Gideon. I never really got to show them to anyone so I'm sharing them with you now. The wreath was made by Charis my sister-in-law, the precious moments cross stitch by Thea, the little blue and white blanket and the hat next to it were made by someone from the NICU, the all blue blanket was made by Gideon's Moni (Seth's mom) , the blue and white blanket with the animals were made by Gideon's Nanoo (Seth's Grandma), and the colorful blanket that everything is on was made by Gideon's Great Auntie Paige. Oh and the little blanket that has the white square with blue around it was my attempt at a blanket when I was on bed rest with Gideon. It obviously didn't go very well, but it holds sweet memories.

To everyone who made things for my children. Thank you so much they will be treasured forever!

Productive Day

Believe it or not today was actually a pretty productive day. I was able to get the mounds of clean clothes put away; I even set a few things aside to give away which I've been meaning to do for awhile now. I also started putting up some of my maternity clothes; I'm so excited to get back into my normal clothes. I changed the sheets on our bed, picked up our bed room, got the kitchen picked up including putting the clean dishes away and washing the dirty ones, with a little help from my wonderful husband. In the nursery the diaper pail is emptied, again thanks to Seth, the diaper drawer is full, and baby gifts have been put away. I also gave Seth a hair cut. And the best part of the day was snuggling and taking a nap with Jericho. Pretty good since I wasn't expecting, although I was hoping, to get a whole lot done. Now I'm off to give Jericho a bath, feed her, and head to bed. I think tomorrow Jericho and I are just going to relax!

Just the 3 of us

For us (Seth, Jericho, and I oh and Gamba too!) tomorrow will be the beginning of a wonderful adventure. We will get to see what life is going to be like just the 3 of us! You may be thinking well Jericho is already two weeks old haven't you started that adventure yet. Technically yes, but since both our families live in other states we have had family visiting for the last two weeks. It's been wonderful having our families here, my family was here last week and Seth's parents were here for a few days this week, but as wonderful as it was we are excited that it is now just the 3 of us.


I have many plans for tomorrow: there are mounds of clean clothes that need to be put up, a mound or two that still needs to be washed, baby gifts that need to be put away, clean dishes to be put up, a few dirty ones to be washed, a check book that needs to be balanced, and a house to be put back together after having visitors for 2 weeks, I also need to figure out what to do for dinner. People from our church have been bringing meals by, it's something our church does when people have babies and it's so nice, but tonight was our last night. As you can see for me real life with a baby begins tomorrow.


For those of you that read my list of things that need to be done tomorrow, especially those of you that have had babies and know what it's like, please don't freak out. It's what needs to be done not what has to be done or what is going to get done. I realize that one maybe two of the things on the list may get done and if that doesn't even happen it will be okay. I'm in no hurry. I guess the #1 thing I should have put on the list that I know will get done is to enjoy my sweet Jericho!


LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

Big Girl!

* Because this is a family blog and for privacy reasons some images have been modified for viewing purposes *

Jericho is a big girl in more than one way. The first being that her umbilical cord stump fell off on Saturday so she got to have her first big girl bath. Jericho's not a huge fan yet, as you can see from the pictures she's much happier out of the water, but we are hoping that one day that will change. As for now we are thankful for the benefits of a bath, the main one being that she sleeps great after them. I think it's pretty much because she wears herself out from crying the whole time and not so much that the bath relaxes her but again one day that will change. The other benefit is that she smells wonderful afterwards. I love the smell of babies, most of the time depending on content of the diaper, but the smell of freshly bathed babies. Oh I love it! It makes me want to eat them up! And I've found that when it's your own baby it's that much sweeter! Oh how I love my sweet Jericho!

Jericho is also growing physically. She had her two week appointment today and she has gained a whole pound! I can't believe it. She is definitely a good eater. I keep telling her that she needs to slow down a little bit. I don't want her to get to big to fast and I'm not talking about weight, I'm so glad that she is growing and healthy, but I want to enjoy her being a baby. I've always heard that it goes fast and I am finding that it's all to true and my baby is ONLY 2 weeks old. How can that be?!?

Future Fan

My family came to visit this last week so they could meet our newest addition. It was nice having everyone together again. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does we have fun. The only one missing was Adam, my older sisters husband. We missed you Adam!

Working on her jump shot with Uncle Andy

If you know my husband or my brother at all you know that they are both athletes and that basketball is their favorite sport. As an athlete you always have teams and players that are your favorite. Well growing up close to Chicago and in the 80's when the Bulls were good, Micheal Jordan, has always been one of my brother's favorite players. Same with Seth although he grew up in Alabama so I'm not sure how he becoame a Jordan fan. Because Micheal Jordan is a family favorite, Jericho received her first Jordan outfit before she was even born from her Uncle Andy.



What started out as a few innocent pictures of Uncle Andy with Jericho in the outfit he gave her, turned into a photo shoot (these aren't even half of the pictures taken) with plans to send pictures of our adorable future fan to Michael Jordan in hopes of getting some endorsements. This is what happens when daddy and Uncle Andy get together and get a hold of the baby.

No more pictures PLEASE!

Jericho was a good sport about the whole thing. She even seemed to enjoy it some. I think we might already have another Jordan fan in the family!

Another quick update about Joshua

Here is the latest email that I received about Joshua:

We got the results back of our amniocentesis. Joshua DOES NOT have any trisomy syndromes! Praise the Lord! This means, he has a better chance of living through a surgery, and it also means he may not have more issues in his body besides the encephalocele. We will go in for a scan of is heart around 26 weeks - in the next 2 to 3 weeks - to rule out cardiac malformations/conditions. Please continue to agree with us in prayer!
1. For a miracle concerning his encephalocele
2. That the encephalocele (*sack with brain matter*) will not grow larger, but begin to grow back inside his skull
3. That his heart is in perfect order
4. That he will continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit (*as we've been continually promised*) while in the womb, in the same way John the Baptist was.

Joshua moved and jumps when he's being prayed for. I find this exciting and encouraging.
Thank you so much for praying for us, we sincerely feel your prayers.

Update on Joshua Matthew

Some of you have asked about the my friend that was pregnant and found out, by ultrasound, that the baby had some neurological problems. Here is the update that we received. Please continue to pray for them and I will keep you updated.


Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you will have already heard what's going on in our lives. For the rest, here is our update.

I have been at our YWAM Discipleship Training School for 6 weeks now. During our 5th week at the school we went for my 20 week ultrasound. Our pregnancy - up to this point - has been an absolutely breeze. We were all excited, until our ultrasound tech told us that our baby had some sort of brain problem. She wasn't very clear that day, but our midwife led us to believe our son - Joshua Matthew - had part of his brain coming out through his skull. Originally we thought this was anencephaly, an absence of the top half of the skull and brain tissue. Several days after that we received the real diagnosis: encephalocele. Encephalocele is a sack protruding from the skull - where a bone has not fused properly in the developing stages (most likely before we knew we were pregnant) - with half of his brain matter in the sack and half in his cranium. This diagnosis is only what we can tell presently. Last week we thought there was no chance that Joshua would live past his first 24 hours. After our 2nd ultrasound and meeting with a obstetrician from Waikato Hospital, we now understand that encephalocele is often linked to other syndromes and disorders. If Joshua has a chromosomal abnormality, Trisomy 13 for example, it is not likely he will ever be able to undergo surgeries to rectify the situation. Also, if he has a heart condition, it could be very difficult. So we had an amniocentesis done on Thursday (they drew out fluid from around the baby to test it) and we will have the results on Monday. We are praying that this test comes back clear of any chromosomal abnormalities. If it is clear, then they will schedule us in for a heart scan when he is a little bit bigger (in 2 to 4 weeks). At present they have told us that they do not see any physical abnormalities that would indicate he has other problems, besides the encephalocele. If these two tests come back clear, they will send us to pediatricians and neurosurgeons to discuss his surgical options. They will need to do further, higher tech scans to see what brain matter is inside, what is outside, what (if any) has been damaged, and if they can do anything for him. We are believing that God knows best for our son. Joshua is so important to us, and we want to do the very best for him. We also want to watch him grow up. It's going to be a very difficult road for the next few months. Please pray with us for our son's full recovery, and also for our loving Father's will over Joshua's life. On a positive note, Joshua moves a lot (he moves all day every day) and has quite a bit of dexterity. In fact, he pointed one finger at the ultrasound tech the other day - I found that amazing. He has 10 fingers and 10 toes (another plus according to the doctor). His kidneys appear normal, as does his heart. Our daughter does not seem to realize what is going on, thought at times she feels the tension. She is our light in a dark hour - still the cheeky, little smiler that she always is. Please pray that she begins to sleep through the night routinely, and that she won't be aware of the tension.Please pray also that my husband and I to begin to sleep better. It's very difficult to shut our minds off at night, and we find we are exhausted all the time. We are sensing that the Lord wants us to remain in New Zealand for now, but we also need confirmation from the Lord - (ie. accepted work visas!). Please stand with us during our storm. We are learning to rely on God and His love - but it is so hard right now. Thank you all. We love you and appreciate you all.

- Mr & Mrs. S

PS. The Lord spoke to my husband about 4 hours before we went for our 1st scan (we didn't know he was a boy) and gave him the name Joshua because Joshua was "strong and courageous" (it also means God saves) and Matthew because it means "Gift of God". He is our strong and courageous gift of God. We are so thankful for our little blessing. :)
PPS. I just realized I did not make it clear that we are continuing on with our school and are juggling hospital visits, the school, and our church responsibilities at present. Please pray for our stability of heart, mind, and body while we do this.

Bundle of Joy

I can't believe it's already been a week since Jericho was born. She has been such a joy to have home. We've taken many pictures and here are a few of my favorites. I promise I will start actually writing more sometime soon. I don't think you guys will mind mostly pictures for now though - right?!?

Sunday Best (Daddy picked it out!)

Bright eyes

My baby girl

Having sweet dreams

Got Milk!