Elise's Birth!

The morning of July 12th (mine and Neal's 5 year anniversary:), at 2 am I was awoken by my water breaking. Elise was due on July 6th, but obviously not yet ready to come. I'd been having hard contractions for 10 nights, but no baby yet. We, along with many others had been praying for Elise to come for quite a few different reasons: 1) We had our plane tickets booked to leave August 10th, and we had to get her passport and visa prior to us leaving. 2) I wanted to have a VBAC with Elise as opposed to a c-section like I had with Elijah...and she was measuring big and getting later and later, which aren't favorable for having a VBAC. 3) Neal and I wanted as much time with family after Elise was born.

But, even with all our reasoning and pleading before the Lord, He's still sovereign and He knows best! I'd asked for Him to bring Elise on her own by breaking my water so that I didn't have to choose a c-section date, since that's what my doctor was asking me to do... He answered my prayer!

When my water broke at 2 am, after calling the hospital we called my mom who was on standby at all times. She and my brother Joel rushed over to our apartment so that Joel could stay with Elijah while the rest of us headed to the hospital. 

Above is mom and I in the parking lot of the hospital...time is now 2:30 am, on July 12th.

Almost all of our family got to come visit at one point or another. However, the early supporters were both moms and sisters Lauren and Rachel. They were all such sports coming early to cheer me on and pray for me. Later as I was trying to get my contractions closer together they took turns walking laps with me and pushing the pole my IV was hooked onto. 

My doctor gave me till 6am the next morning to have the baby VBAC, and if I wasn't dilated to 5cm by then, she planned to do a c-section.

Much prayer took place before 6am, but my body only dilated to 1cm, even after 28 hours of labor in the hospital. There were some tears shed, but we trusted the Lord.

I was prepared and wheeled back to the surgery room  while Neal got his surgery clothes on. He looked like a doctor:)

At 6:58am on July 13th our precious baby girl, Elise Faith, was born!

She was a healthy 9 pounds and 7 ounces, and was 20 and a half inches long!

I couldn't help but cry when I heard the precious sound of life coming from her in the voice of her own cry. God is so amazing with how He brings sweet babies into the world!

Later that day Elijah got to meet his baby sister for the first time. It was precious seeing him be so inquisitive about her...although it didn't last too long. Honestly the room and all the cool wires, etc. that are in a hospital were way neater to discover for him at that moment:) Later he of course wanted to hug her and hold her. He's always been affectionate, so I loved watching this play out with Elise. 

 

Here's Elise with her Nanna. My parents wanted to make sure they were there for the birth of Elise, so they stayed with us all night. Neal, my parents, and I tried to sleep for a few hours before she was born...it wasn't easy. We were all tired, but I was so thankful they wanted to stay with me...it meant so much.

Here's everyone in my family that got to come to the hospital to see us. Joel's girlfriend, Cassandra came to see us as well, so that was nice. Rebecca, Michael's wife was visiting her family up North and didn't get to come, as well as Daniel, Jessica and their four boys who were at home in South Carolina. They all got to visit with us and see Elise later. 

One evening Neal's family took he and Elijah to eat at Moe's before coming to visit Elise and I. This was nice for Neal to get out and eat something other than hospital food. Elijah loves Moe's burritos, so it was a great choice for him.

We got Elise all dressed up in her smocked little pink dress to head home. It was hard to believe I was holding my baby girl...gosh I love her!

Thank you God for your perfect plan for Elise Faith, which was displayed in her birth! We love her!

On our way back!

Hello everyone I know that many of you are wondering why we have not posted in a while...


Just to let you know we have had a busy schedule of going to America to have our 2nd child this summer (with no wifi in the room), and just recently traveled in Germany for a few weeks...

Now we just arrived in Delhi and are preparing to go back to Kite City and get readjusted to life here.

Please be patient with us... we hope to start back to posting again in the next week or so.

For the meantime here are a few picks of our trip to Germany with Kristen's family before we headed back, it was a good brief trip:

This is Heidelberg, our favorite spot... the most beautiful city in Germany.

Things That Do Good to Your Heart - Starbucks!

When we heard that Starbucks came to Delhi we, especially me (Kristen), were way too overjoyed. I love Starbucks! I'm not the biggest coffee drinker, but I love the Starbucks caramel frappiccino and the whole environment of a coffee shop. Drinking Starbucks was something that I had to give up when moving across the world. I did get to visit one in Thailand on a visa run, but other than that it had been over a year. 

It did my heart so much good to walk into the coffee embellished aroma that I'd been missing!

They gave Elijah his own little cup with whip cream in it, and he loved it!

The shop was really cool! I'd never seen one like it before. It was two stories with a coffee shop feel, but with both American and Indian culture tied together. There was a rustic atmosphere, and they had pictures of the Indian people making everything by hand that went on the walls, ceiling, etc. 

We waited 20 minutes in line just to get inside cause it was so packed. Then we waited another 20 minutes or so to find an open seat. There was such a sweet couple who saw me, with my pregnant belly, waiting for a seat while Neal and Elijah were getting our drinks. They saw that so many other people were jumping in front of me to get seats cause they were impatient, aggressive, and standing by people till they got up, also not staying in line, which is typical in India. When the couple noticed this they called me over, had their daughter sit in a seat with them, and gave me her seat along with one of their tables. I was very grateful for their kindness! 

This was the awesome map on the wall (which was like almost two stories tall) showing where Starbucks was started and where it ended up in India. It was a great idea!

Thank you God for being so sweet to us to give us something so familiar and something that You know would help our hearts! Such blessing!

A Burial in India

As many of you know one of our good friends had a to watch 

his father suffer from sickness recently. 

This would not have been such a serious problem if the family was not 

dependent on the income of every family member to keep afloat.

He actually headed up the pressing business that kept the family going.

One day I went out to visit him because he told me that it was getting serious.

I entered the small outdoor shack to see that they had set him outside the house 

so that everyone could see him. There were about 20 women sitting in front of his body, not eating or drinking, waiting for him to die. At this point they had struggled so much with his sickness that many had gone over a week without eating. After laying hands on him and praying over him in

front of everyone, I felt that I needed to leave.

The next day I got the news...

Sadly after a long fight with sickness our good friend lost his father.

We went to the house and witnessed over 100 women weeping over the body in a dimly lit area.

Some women were wailing and flailing while others that were further away seemed less real.

Kristen started to cry when we saw him and I prayed asking God for a miracle... but nothing happened.

As we left the area and came back to the scooter, our friend wished us well and hugged Elijah, a tear streaming down the face of his younger son. I felt so bad for these people, if only they knew 

the fullness of hope that we had in Jesus. I had tried to share many times before, but on this day

it seemed it had not been spoken enough.

When I left I told Kristen that I felt a small glimpse of what it feels to be in hell. The Bible talks

of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" which everyone around us seemed to be doing there. I thought 

about how the scriptures tell us not to weep like the world, "without hope". 

What sadness they must have felt.

Later that day I returned to be a part of the burial.

There were actually well over 600 men gathered quickly in one day to remember him.

All of this happened on a very rainy day: friends and family all gathered within hours.

All of the men gathered for prayer before carrying the body.

By the end of the prayer the numbers had increased even more.

Almost half were family.

The numbers would have been even more if it were not raining.

Entering into a very busy street during the busiest time of the day.

Trudging through the busy street, traffic piled up as we walked the puddle ridden road.

When the rain picked up they put a tarp over the case. 

I actually helped carry the body for a short time.

After burying the body in the graveyard, we returned to the home where 

they cooked enough food to feed everyone!

All of the people taking orders for food.

If it was not enough to lose your father, now you have to produce enough food 

to feed 600 + people!

All of the kids were in one area, close to the women's eating area.

There still was room for a little cheer amongst all of the sadness.

This is my friend's daughter holding a child.

These kids are so precious.

This is actually where my friend lives, back in the alleyway behind this old historical home.

We have actually had more conversations about life and death ever since the event.

Os has come to our house 2,3x a day every week since the incident.

This is actually the meal we ate 30 days later to remember Os' father (the 2nd of 4!).

The meals actually were a great financial burden to the family so we helped 

pay for some of the food.

Elijah enjoyed playing with the kids each time we came.

We love Os and are praying for God to continue to move through these circumstances

and use this for His purposes.

Only in India #39

Only in India, the bicycle powered school bus!

Empowering Education since 1950!

...tough job!