Our Baby Story

First let me thank you all for your prayers, love, and support over the last week!  Meredith, Lily, and I are all doing great because God has been abundantly faithful to take care of us!   We firmly believe it is the prayers of faithful men and women that move the hands of almighty God. 

Here's our baby story in brief.  On Monday, August 23rd, Meredith was 10 days "post-date" and had still not gone into labor.  Our doctors were concerned about possible meconium leakage and some other potential complications, so they advised us to go ahead and induce labor.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am and they hooked Meredith up to the monitors.  She was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced.  She was also having contractions 5 minutes apart, but they weren't strong enough to be effective for labor.  At 9:30am, the doctor broke Meredith's water, and at 10:00am they began giving her a small dose of pitocin (a medication used to induce contractions). 

Her labor progressed throughout the day at a steady pace, and at 8:30pm the doctor announced it was time to push!  After 2 hours of steady pushing, our daughter Lily Audrey was born healthy, weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and 21 1/2 inches long.  

We're so thankful that Meredith was able to deliver Lily without any complications.  Her grandparents were almost as excited to meet her as we were!  The "grandmas'' got to meet her first!

For Meredith's parents,  Lily is their first grandchild.  They're going to be wonderful grandparents!

For my parent's Lily is their first granddaughter.  Watching my dad hold my daughter for the first time was a special moment I'll never forget.  It made me so keenly aware of and thankful for my heritage in the faith.  Like all men, my father has his faults.  But he reared me to know the Lord and to walk in His ways.  There's no greater way that he could have blessed me.

For my mom, holding Lily was a very familiar and joyous feeling.  As a mother of five and grandmother of now three, my mom has forgotten more about babies than I'll probably ever know.  One more person for her to pray for and help take care of!

We went home from the hospital on Wednesday, August 25th in the afternoon with a clean bill of health and well wishes from all Meredith's doctors and our pediatrician!

Lily is a beautiful, precious blessing from the Lord, and we are overwhelmed at His goodness to allow us to have her!  Please continue to pray for our family in the coming week as we adjust to life with less sleep and selflessness takes on a whole new dimension.

If you'd like to see more pictures, you can check out the entire 105 picture album here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2371857&id=22222289&l=6246e1f02f

Here's a brief ministry update too:

We were able to have our Ministry Information Dinner on August 18th at Central Baptist Church in Wendell.  The dinner went awesome.  We had about 60 adults, which was tremendous.  There was a lot of excitement about what the Lord is doing in East Tennessee, and I'm excited to follow up with those who were there.  Now that Lily is home, I'll begin that follow-up process this week.  Thank you for praying for us during this time!