Day 4 - A Blessed Night & Better Morning

Well yesterday Julie turned 38 years old and officially became a year older than me...again.  This happens every year on the 5th of June until November 13th when I have my birthday.  I once again am now married to an "older woman"...which I think is really cool actually.  She really cherishes these 6 months every year and any references I make to them. :-)

Day 3 - Birthday & Back Pain

It has been over 48 hours since Julie's water broke and she has not gone into labor, that is a very good benchmark.  Most women go into labor within 48 hours after breaking their water so we have moved into the next percentage of women and the likelihood has increased for the baby hanging on.

This morning is Julie's 38th birthday.  Evidently , our usual night out to at Trattoria Marcella is not happening this year.  Our waiter is going to wonder where we are. :-)  We have another visit with the kids planned today and I am going to try to bring in some nicer food for a pseudo-birthday dinner, not sure if TM  cooks to go or not.

Our First Hospital Visit: Morning of Day 2

This morning after preparing breakfast, getting the house cleaned up, getting children dressed, helping them do their chores, and trying to take care of my own stuff...we finally got out of the house for a hospital visit around 10am.  It was great to see Julie but as I expected, 5 young children pouring into a small hospital room with a Mother who can't move was not as "romantic" or "nostalgic" as either Julie or I were thinking.  Nothing like a dose of child reality to help keep ones feet planted on the ground.  We had a good visit as I took a couple kids at a time down the hall for a walk so Julie could try to get some better 1 on 2 time with each of them.  Julie made the brilliant observation that we would try to talk later on the phone.

End Of Day Update - Day 1

Whew!!!  What a day.  I can say that neither Julie nor I went to bed last night with any idea of what today would bring.  We had 3 miscarriages the past 3 years, but this pregnancy had been going so smoothly up to this point.  We got through our first trimester just fine, reached the 20 week point and had our ultrasound...everything looked great and this child had a nice healthy big head like its Papa.  We were gearing up for the uncomfortable 3rd trimester in the Missouri summer heat, but felt as if we were in the clear regarding the health of Julie and the baby.

Settle In For The Night - 2PM

Well it looks like we will be here for a while.  Julie is leaking amniotic fluid from somewhere but nobody can find out where.  She has not yet begun laboring and we don't want to since the baby is only 24 weeks along.  There is still a lot of fluid in the womb, so they think that the leak may be higher in the womb and not at the bottom where it would all leak out.  Anyway, this is their initial best estimate of what is going on.  There are a number of steps and procedures that the hospital will begin as a result of their findings.  So now we wait and pray and take one blessed day in the womb at a time.  Please pray that the baby grows strong and that Julie does not go into labor.

A Turn In The Road - 11AM

It is Sunday morning, June 3rd, and we are currently sitting in St. John's Mercy Hospital here in St. Louis.  Last night Caroline had been up sick at around 2:30 and then again at 4:30am.  At that time Julie felt some fluid flow while lying in bed.  Concerned, but not wanting to overreact, she laid back down and ten minutes later it happened again.  This second occurrence led us to call our doctor.  He recommended us coming into the hospital as our doctor was in house for the evening.  When we got there, our doctor came in, ran an ultrasound, ran a standard test, and from everything he saw did not think the fluid was her bag of waters, which was the concern.  There were many pockets of fluid in the womb which could be seen on the ultrasound and the baby's was doing fine, so we agreed things looked good.

Parenting DOJO (Workshop) Resources - Part 2

Below are the "Parenting DOJO" resources for the 2nd workshop we gave in May.  The various topics are listed in bold and the resources pertaining to each topic are underneath.  Please comment with any questions you might have.  We would love to assist and help in whatever way possible.

(If you purchase these items through Amazon and do so through our links below, we would be very grateful.  There is no extra cost to you and we receive a referral credit from them.)

Scripture Memory:




A Scripture Memory System we recommend


(more below the fold)

Parenting DOJO Resources (from our workshop)

Below are the "Parenting DOJO" resources for the workshop we gave on Monday and are giving again this Tuesday, March 6th at 7pm at Rooftop Community Church.  We invite and encourage you to come to find out more about the resources, why we recommend them, and how we implement them into our day to day family environment.  There are many of them, but each of them serve a different purpose and role in our family and in the raising of our children:


(If you purchase these items through Amazon and do so through our links below, we would be very grateful.  There is no extra cost to you and we receive a referral credit from them.)

Christian Worldview:



(more below the fold)

The Parenting DOJO

Julie and I are in the middle of a Parenting Workshop called the "Parenting DOJO".  Last year while teaching through the book of Titus in the New Testament, we as Christ Followers were challenged to train ourselves so that we would live out our faith more clearly so that the world would rightly see Jesus in us.  This is a creative word for discipleship, which is the responsibility of all who proclaim to believe in and follow Jesus Christ.

Julie and I hosted our first Parenting DOJO last Monday and will be hosting the same training again this Tuesday.  Our objective is to briefly teach on some important principles for Christian Parents and give MANY practical methods we have found effective in raising our own children.  They may not all work for everyone, but we hope some of them will be pertinent and useful for each family that attends.  We are not experts in this area, but are avid and passionate students.  We want to continue learning and growing in how to love and lead our own children toward (1) whole-hearted faith in Jesus Christ and (2) a keen knowledge of God and how their faith in Jesus should impact every area of their developing lives.

As you remember, please pray for our time on Tuesday evening.  Also, you will be seeing more posts with info and resources on this topic.

Zimbabwe Update - Pedzy

Most of you know that I went to Zimbabwe, Africa last August on a mission trip.  During our time we focused on discipleship training for the young adult believers in country.  We also spent time discipling and serving the pastoral leadership there as well.  One of the young ministry leaders I met on my first trip in 2007, saw again in 2011, and continue to correspond with is Pedzy.  Pedzy is great and is on fire for the Lord.  He recently graduated Bible College and is pursuing a ministry calling.  For those of you who want to see the people we are serving and ministering to in our Zimbabwe ministry, here is a video of Pedzy talking about a conference he attended in December led by a fellow pastor, Bill Layle, from our previous church in Grand Rapids...

Nathan Young (who went on the trip with us in August) and I just talked this morning about how we are still in touch with Pedzy...so the ministry relationship continues across the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks again to all who supported and prayed for our trip and for our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters in Christ!