My Ebenezer

This post is for my mom, who has of yet hasn't seen Seth!  We tried to Skype on Thanksgiving Day, but the picture was blurry. So here are two videos that I took in the hospital this past week.  For you, Mom! :)

He's finally here! Our little boy Seth Marshall was born on November 19 at 6:37a.m.  And praise the Lord for c-sections, is all I can say. :). A brief birth story: We came home from church Sunday night and began our routine; showers for Josh and Noah, and a little computer time for me. About 9:30pm I was  scanning my Facebook updates, when all of a sudden my water broke. (Boy does that ever make a mess! I was so thankful I was in the privacy of my own home and not still at church.) Joel and Hannah happened to be visiting on their way further south,which turned out to be an even bigger blessing because we knew we could leave Noah with them.  I began doing all the things on my list (pack my suitcase, take a shower, etc) and timing contractions.  Everyone went to bed, and I lay down too, though sleep was out of the question with contractions every 5 minutes. By 3;45am I couldn't stand it anymore--contractions were every 3 minutes and extremely painful.  I woke J

39 weeks.  We went in for an ultrasound today, and they estimate the baby is currently 9lbs 13oz and not interested in coming out anytime soon!  (The margin of error is about 15% in either direction, so the baby could be smaller or bigger than that: probably between 8.3lbs and 11.2lbs right now.)  I am 1cm dilated, but not effaced a bit, and his head is still very much "floating" and not engaged at all. So. The plan for now is to wait it out another week (please, Lord, let him come this week!!!), and if there's still nothing happening at my next appointment on my due date, we'll probably go ahead and schedule a c-section for sometime after that.  If you could pray that I go into labor on my own, and--miracle of miracles--be able to deliver on my own, I would greatly appreciate it! P.S. We got to see his little face!  I cried. :)

Have you noticed my blog isn't very political?  I don't talk politics on here much at all.  That's on purpose, and so I almost let this election slip by unmentioned, but I just couldn't do it without commenting (1) that it happened and (2) how I feel about it. So a week ago now Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term as President.  Not by me, and not by most of my friends and family, but it happened.  The Lord allowed it.  We praise the Lord anyway and move on... I got the following quote from a friend's Facebook post, and I find that it sums up exactly what happened in this election.  And because of it, I am even more determined to keep praying for America over the next four years. " “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from t

This past week on Nov 6 (Election Day!) our church closed on the purchase of a property, to be used as our future meeting place!  This was many months in the coming, and many prayers later.  There were times we were confused as to how the Lord was working, and then times of little miracles and unmistakable answers to prayer.  We rejoice in the Lord's debt-free provision of a larger, more-classroomed building (spell checker is telling me "classroomed" is not a word.  Oh well.) and can't wait to get moved over there!  But first there are quite a few renovations to be made to turn this office strip building into a functioning church.  We're excited to work on this and see the progress! Front of building.  There are 3 office units side-by-side.  The plan is to work on the far left one first (which will eventually be a fellowship hall), and then begin meeting there while work on the other 2 units takes place. Pastor Matt working on the duct system and air han

Today was Noah's last soccer game of the season.  We fully intend to sign him up for next season on the same team, because the team dynamics were just excellent this year.  Loved the families, loved the coaches, loved it! (yes, that is Noah's arm around teammate Faith.  I suspect a crush!  He talks about Faith all the time.)

Last night all the Jacksonville Rowleys had an early supper and went to the Fair together.  It's been a couple years since we did this, and each time it gets more fun as the kids become more able to enjoy it. P.S.  Though I really want to, I have yet to ride the Ferris Wheel at the Fair!  Noah has never been tall enough to go on until this year, so we've skipped it.  Now, the year he's finally able to ride, I had to sit out due to how pregnant I am.  I thought the video Josh took was hysterical, because Noah has been begging to ride this ride for 3 years, and when he finally got the chance, he spent the ride on the floor in the center of the basket.