Wow what a night! At the end of the day, Alex is here, Lauren's doing much better, and now there's 3 to our family. But the journey wasn't easy.
We had a really boring start. From 1-5cm, there was minimal pain and minimal action. By 5cm though, Lauren and I both felt it was time to start the pain meds. It was about 5pm. The doc told us we'd be about 1cm an hour and we'd have him by the end of the day. He failed to realize that Lauren is a champ and that things would progress much more rapidly.
So at 7:30, Lauren and I decide to take a quick nap before we rounded the final stretch. At 8:00, we were both awakened to a panicked technician checking our baby's heartbeat that had dropped below 90bpm. Doc follows him in, infuriated that the check didn't come sooner. "We have to get this baby outta there," barked the doc.
The whirlwind of blue cloth tore through the room as urgency overtook serenity. More commands. More action. The sounds of equipment rolling across the floor, the bang of the bed's edge collapsing, and the snapping of latex gloves consumed us.
For both of us, reality blurred and focus waned. Long story short, Lauren had 2 hours of pushing to do in a few short minutes. My heart swelled as I saw the dark hair of our baby's head, yet the joy wouldn't last. Alex's heart monitor echoed fewer and fewer beeps. Our spirits hit rock bottom as we heard it from the doc, "C Section."
They raced us from delivery room to operating room. I gowned up only to be denied access to the room. Lauren had full access and then full anesthesia. Our family waited to hear good news but only heard the clock ticking.
I sat like a refugee alone in the warzone that was our delivery room. At last, the nurse broke the silence, "Your baby is healthy, and they're slowly waking her up."
Collecting myself, I dropped the good news off with our families and longed for the moment when we could hold our boy. It hasn't come yet. He's recovering well from his pneumothorax, but the professionals are keeping him in the "special" nursery room.
At the end of the day, we're extremely hopeful. By early this afternoon, he should be able to feed, and by the end of the night, he should be in the room with us! Lauren's slowly bouncing back from her surgery, both physically and emotionally. I'm not sure how long we're going to be here, but I am sure we won't be travelling on Monday. :)
We'll let you know more as the saga unfolds, but that's been our life for the past 24 hours. At times last night I truly felt like we were walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but in that, God has certainly been with us. Our souls are restored, and we are finding rest as God continues to lead us through this. Thanks so much from both of us, and we'd love to have you call to come see us! :)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Change- 1
I'd love to change the world, wouldn't you? I'd love to know that at the end of my life, something I did made a difference. I'm sure you've had that thought. Truth is, I think we can! Over the next few days, I want to offer a few thoughts on how you can make change happen right where you are.
I had the chance to watch a live interview with Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes. There principle is simple: for every pair of TOMS shoes that someone buys, they give one pair of shoes to a child in a third world country who needs shoes and who otherwise wouldn't be able to get them. 1 for 1. Check them out at TOMS.com.
Blake captivated the audience with one insight after another. He admitted that his company only focused on giving and let his customers take care of the rest. He explained that every employee at TOMS shoes had regular opportunities to GIVE and to SERVE above and beyond their employee obligations.
Near the end of the interview, Blake offered these words on change, "To create change, you must ask people to join you." It sounds so simple really, but the way his company played it out is genius. You might have heard of the all day barefoot day last April where TOMS shoes challenged the world to spend one day without shoes to raise awareness for the millions of people in the world without shoes. Blake was able to get AT&T to sponsor their company with a simple phone call and meeting. TOMS needed advertisement, AT&T needed an authentic story to promote their products. Blake wanted to create change, and he simply asked people to join him.
Jesus knew this well. He didn't simply try to change the world himself, he asked twelve guys and a whole bunch of other people to follow him. He demonstrated what he was willing to give up by offering his life on the cross. Inspired by his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus' followers went out empowered by the Holy Spirit to change the world in a way that has impacted billions of people to this day.
So what in your world are you trying to change? Are you living for a cause that matters? Stop doing it alone! Find people who share your dreams and your passions, and get connected. If you want to create change, ask people to join you!
I had the chance to watch a live interview with Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes. There principle is simple: for every pair of TOMS shoes that someone buys, they give one pair of shoes to a child in a third world country who needs shoes and who otherwise wouldn't be able to get them. 1 for 1. Check them out at TOMS.com.
Blake captivated the audience with one insight after another. He admitted that his company only focused on giving and let his customers take care of the rest. He explained that every employee at TOMS shoes had regular opportunities to GIVE and to SERVE above and beyond their employee obligations.
Near the end of the interview, Blake offered these words on change, "To create change, you must ask people to join you." It sounds so simple really, but the way his company played it out is genius. You might have heard of the all day barefoot day last April where TOMS shoes challenged the world to spend one day without shoes to raise awareness for the millions of people in the world without shoes. Blake was able to get AT&T to sponsor their company with a simple phone call and meeting. TOMS needed advertisement, AT&T needed an authentic story to promote their products. Blake wanted to create change, and he simply asked people to join him.
Jesus knew this well. He didn't simply try to change the world himself, he asked twelve guys and a whole bunch of other people to follow him. He demonstrated what he was willing to give up by offering his life on the cross. Inspired by his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus' followers went out empowered by the Holy Spirit to change the world in a way that has impacted billions of people to this day.
So what in your world are you trying to change? Are you living for a cause that matters? Stop doing it alone! Find people who share your dreams and your passions, and get connected. If you want to create change, ask people to join you!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Land Between
Friday we attended the Global Leadership Summit hosted by the Willow Creek Association. There were a number of passion-provoking ideas thrown around, but one of the most timely sermons I heard was "The Land Between" by Jeff Manion.
He's actually written a whole book by that same title, but the life stage he described fits so many of us so well. In summary, you find yourself in the land between when you've left where you've been, you're on your way to where you're going, but you aren't there yet.
For Lauren and I, that's exactly where we are. We're leaving the identity we found at Mountain and we are on our way someday to planting a church, but there's this 4 years in between that have to stand for something. We're not who we've been anymore, and we're not yet who we are becoming.
You'll find yourself here if you've had kids and in one of those particularly rebellious days, you wonder who this person is that you've created and why they aren't yet who you've been praying they will be. You are in the land between if you've just made big headway in your workplace, you know another promotion is right around the corner, but for now, you're stuck.
What I, and all of us, in the land between need to understand is that the land between is fertile ground for growing into the people we need to be or losing everything entirely. Just as a good communicator needs to learn to transition well between each point, so we have to learn to work hard in life's transitions to stay the course. While the temptation is for us to become discouraged and emotionally burnt out and even quit when we are in the land between, it's in these times that God can bring about the greatest spiritual transformation in us. These transitional slumps can be the pinnacle of our opportunity to let God develop further into the masterpieces he designed us to be.
So are you in the land between? If you aren't sure, definitely check out the book. I know Lauren and I will. If you aren't there, trust me that your time will come again and your best bet to surviving the land between is to prepare yourself now. For those of you like us who are in the land between, I pray that God will reveal himself to you in a powerful and loud way. Just as Jesus entered the wilderness for 40 days and faced every temptation and trial common to humanity, I pray that you will emerge from the land between victorious, ready to live the abundant life that God offers to each of us!
He's actually written a whole book by that same title, but the life stage he described fits so many of us so well. In summary, you find yourself in the land between when you've left where you've been, you're on your way to where you're going, but you aren't there yet.
For Lauren and I, that's exactly where we are. We're leaving the identity we found at Mountain and we are on our way someday to planting a church, but there's this 4 years in between that have to stand for something. We're not who we've been anymore, and we're not yet who we are becoming.
You'll find yourself here if you've had kids and in one of those particularly rebellious days, you wonder who this person is that you've created and why they aren't yet who you've been praying they will be. You are in the land between if you've just made big headway in your workplace, you know another promotion is right around the corner, but for now, you're stuck.
What I, and all of us, in the land between need to understand is that the land between is fertile ground for growing into the people we need to be or losing everything entirely. Just as a good communicator needs to learn to transition well between each point, so we have to learn to work hard in life's transitions to stay the course. While the temptation is for us to become discouraged and emotionally burnt out and even quit when we are in the land between, it's in these times that God can bring about the greatest spiritual transformation in us. These transitional slumps can be the pinnacle of our opportunity to let God develop further into the masterpieces he designed us to be.
So are you in the land between? If you aren't sure, definitely check out the book. I know Lauren and I will. If you aren't there, trust me that your time will come again and your best bet to surviving the land between is to prepare yourself now. For those of you like us who are in the land between, I pray that God will reveal himself to you in a powerful and loud way. Just as Jesus entered the wilderness for 40 days and faced every temptation and trial common to humanity, I pray that you will emerge from the land between victorious, ready to live the abundant life that God offers to each of us!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Summer Recap
The marathon of summer is over! It certainly was better than anything I could have expected. I spent lots of time with great leaders and students, lives were changed, and God showed up in so many awesome ways!
I don't think I could pick one best memory from the whole thing. The Dominican, our anniversary, CiY, Terp trip, Fallston Baccalaureate, summer FUELs, New York, great conversations with lots of great people... it'll be tough to top this one for sure.
To go further, I could probably recap this entire year. This has been one of the toughest, but definitely one of the most exciting! Death, birth, new friends, lost friends, conflicts, scholarships, questions, CPAC, soul-searching, growing, reaching out, NYWC, doing terribly, doing greatly, watching people succeed, seeing people fail; this has truly been the best of times and the worst of times.
With all that said, God calls each of us to go beyond, to do more in life than we ever thought we could. While I've definitely done that this year, I also know there's still more to come. God has more work to do in & through my life, and so I say with Paul:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)
I've got a long way to go to be who God made me to be, but I'm definitely becoming that person. So far, it's been an incredible journey, an amazing ride, and an abundant life. My hope is that as we press on toward what comes next, that God will continue to blaze a trail for us as we begin the next chapter of our story. May God do the same for you!
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