It's A Boy!

Remember how I mentioned in my last post about ADVENTURE, :) well... IT'S A BOY!!! And what a ride it's been! First I want to say Thank you for all the many prayers that went out for us and our precious Luke Kristopher. The pregnancy was a tough one and the end was filled with so many uncertainties, But God is so good and He brought us through it all. I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at 34 weeks pregnancy and was put on 100 % bed rest. That alone was filled with it's challenges for sure with three little girls at home :) But we are blessed with the best church family and dearest friends and so many helped by bringing meals, watching the girls and light house cleaning, THANK YOU ALL! You know who you are!
By 37 weeks I awoke at 6:30 in the morning with the signs that it was time to get to the hospital, Luke was on his way and a planned emergency C-section is what was going to have to take place. God had brought us far over the few weeks leading up to this day, He had protected me and the baby and had worked out so many miracles and still was working even through the day ahead. The song that we heard playing on the way to the hospital was, "I Can Trust Jesus"by the Collingsworth family. Randy and I, through tears, sang along knowing that every word was true and God was walking through all of this with us.
We arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am and the C-sec became schedualed for 11:15 am. Our pastor, pastor's wife, dear friend and doula Johanna and family Rob and Dee were all there to see us through :) I think it was a great comfort for my hubby, Randy had been so full of support and strength and now that the day was here and not knowing the outcome, it was what we needed. Surrounded by their prayers and many others across the country and even in Argentina :) We felt so blessed knowing this was one prayed for lil baby!
We were also blessed to have one of the best, Dr. Daniel Bowen of Springfield. do the surgery, We are so very thankful that God led us to him a couple of years ago, as I have worked with him as doula and know that I sure would'nt have wanted anyone else! The things he did for our family and the person he is was such a huge blessing. And now for the biggest miracle of all...

LUKE KRISTOPHER PAULUS

6lb 11oz and 20 inches long

born at 11:41am, healthy, pink and crying for all to hear:)

The doctor let us know that he rarely saw a 37 week baby so healthy and ready for home, "Thank you Lord!" All was safely over and although it's been a long road of recovery since, with it's share of difficult moments, the beautiful moments out shine it all. God has so richly blessed us once again and all I hope now is that these precious days don't pass us by too quickly!

holding hands :)

Daddy and Son

Mommy and Luke

First "bath"

We were greeted with several posters like these when we arrived home, all from Randalyn, Autumn and Nikayla (thank you Carla :)

The Girls meet their new brother....:)







Robbie...

O wow! So much time has passed! Hopefully my blogging sabatical is over and I can share our family updates more frequently with you all :) Life has been so very full, as a dear friend of mine said the other day, "it's a good thing you didn't know about the adventure ahead of you this past year, you might not have taken it!" I have to admit, there is some truth to that! But then I would have missed all of the blessings God sent our way, speaking of "Blessings", the song Blessings, by Laura Story has come to be very dear to my heart this year, filled with so much truth and very real to much of our life that we have traveled recently.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise
(Laura Story)

One of the hardest things we went through this past year was seeing a little boy that our family loves very much move on to a new family. He was a foster child for the past three years in our friends home, we went through the total process of adoption, and just when things looked like they would be complete! It was decided by the agency to place him somewhere else. To say our hearts were broken doesn't even come close to the feelings and grief we have felt, we had watched this little one grow up with our own Nikayla, loved him as one of our own, but God had different plans, we don't know why, we may never know but that's where the above song became so dear to us...

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy

What if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are your mercies in disguise

...what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We love you Robbie, and we pray you will grow up to be the wonderful person we know God has created you to be, we will always and forever hold you dear to our hearts and no matter where life takes you, someone is praying, loving, missing and holding you dear to their hearts. We will never forget you.

"Life is not measured by days, but by moments"