Pam came to visit Isaac and Nolan

Our pastors came to visit

Nolan comes home

Nolan and GG

Nolan Got to come home to see his GG for the first time. He warmed right up to her, cuddled and fell asleep.

My Absence

It was weird not being at wednesday night service. Really weird. But our team rocked without me, not sure if they actually need me there.

We stayed home and had dinner together as a family. We are trying to adjust into a new routine and schedule as fast as possible, because that is how Isaac thrives the best.

Afterward, Tom and Kylie came to visit Nolan. We actually got Tom to hold Nolan. He has a fear of dropping babies and their heads falling off due to a traumatic experience with a puppy and some stairs.

Nolan Levi : Day Four

We get to come home today. I am so thankful. I was starting to get itchy and anxious to get home. The doctors came in and checked both Kara and Nolan, and all was well. We are going home in beautiful weather to a house full of family waiting to greet us. We have My mom and Dad, Kara's mom and dad, and my grandma (whom Isaac calls GG, great grandmother).

So we went in to the hospital on Friday and came home on Monday, not so bad.

Nolan Levi : Day Three

Day 3: I slept through most of the morning, but not night. Nolan was up every few hours. Oh cool, I can hear church bells ringing right now. I got a 4 hour stretch of pretty much uninterrupted sleep between 5 and 9, and then I was up, ate breakfast, and cleaned the room. This stay has been a welcomed boring one. The pediatrician just came in and gave a good report. There has been no scare of defects or anything. So this is what normal is like. I like it. I like this boring, normal, nothing out of the ordinary hospital stay.

Nolan on the other hand is not boring. He is the cutest little guy. He makes cooing noises while he sleeps. He does not really cry still, he whines when he wants something. He did cry, however, last night while we gave him his first bath. He did not like that at all. Being wet and cold is not his favorite thing.

We have a few visitors coming up today. One of the pastors of our church, Ken, will be here, and Pam, an amazing adult leader from our youth ministry will be here too. I get excited when I get to show off my boy. Kara’s mom will be up here too with Isaac. Pam is going to drop by the house and pick them up to bring them here. She is so great.

Kara was up and around for the first time today, she took a shower. She was not allowed up yesterday, but the doctor came in today and said that we could go home tomorrow and that Kara can have her catheter and I.V. removed and walk around.

O yeah, Nolan will be circumcised tomorrow. I feel bad for the little guy, but as least he won’t remember it.

Hooray for Nolan!

Nolan Levi and his aunt and uncle

Nolan Levi : Day Two

(The following was written on Saturday)

My goodness can my kid belch! Wow. He makes these cute cooing noises as he sleeps, kind of like a sigh, but really, really cute. Kara has nicknamed him “squeaker.” We had an alright night, not bad actually, for the first night with a newborn. He barely cries at all. I am hoping that this is a personality thing. He is calm, quiet, mellow, and sleepy. Let’s hope it lasts. I feel pretty tired, but I don’t feel miserable at all.

We had family stop by today, my mom and dad, and Josh and Jessica my younger brother and sister. They were not able to be here for the birth, so this is the first time that they got to see Nolan. They just melted over him. I can see why, he is so cute. Also Kara’s parents, who are staying at our house watching Isaac, came up again. They brought Isaac. He is still unsure about Nolan, but when he went home last night, all he talked about was Nolan. So I think that he is excited, yet intimidated.

Some friends from church came by today to see Nolan. Chris works at the GR press and he brought Beth his wife, the woman who single handedly runs our entire youth café, and their daughter Sarah, whom Isaac loves. She will chase Isaac around on Wednesday nights as we clean things up. She got to hold Nolan (after much persuasion).

Right now all the family is in the cafeteria, and the “Little Pudge”, as I have so named him, is learning how to eat. He is one gassy fella. I made sure to take pictures of Isaac as well, so he does not feel that all the attention is being sent to Nolan. My mom also brought him a gift bag too. That was really nice, and he loved playing with it.

Kara is doing well, the doctor came in today to check on us and told us that she is to stay in bed today, because of the bleeding she was experiencing during the operation. We think that we will be going home on Monday. Until then, we wait, and rest, and get to know our new baby boy.

The family has gone home, and we are here alone with our boy. It still seems surreal. I think that feeling will wear off when we get him home. He still mostly sleeps. Kara is trying to wake him to eat, but it is not working, he is out like a light.

Sweet hat Nolan

Our New Family

Nolan Levi is here

Nolan Levi : Day One

(I had no access to internet for the past few days, so the following was written on Friday)

Man what a day! Well we woke up to a phone call this morning from Kara’s physician, Dr. Murphy, saying, “I want to deliver this baby today.” He had reviewed the ultrasound we had yesterday and saw that Kara was building amniotic fluid fast, he didn’t want to go any further. So we went in and for those of you who haven’t heard yet, we had a baby boy today, Nolan Levi, at 4:28pm. He was 7 lbs 9 oz, 19 ½ Inches long. We are loving him so much. It was one of the most joyous moments of my life to hear him cry for the first time!

He is short and pudgy, with dark hair and very round features. I was thinking that he would be a little clone of me and Isaac, but he is not, he is short and round, not tall and thin. He is the cutest. I think that if you blended the features of Isaac and Samantha, my niece, you would get Nolan.

Our Doctor had a hard time putting Kara back together though. She had what was called a “window” on her uterus from previous pregnancies. The “window” is where the uterus is stretched so thin that it is merely one layer thick, and is hard to stitch back together. But our doctor believes that all will be well. I pray he is correct. This means that we are officially done with birthing any more children. But we already came to that conclusion before we knew of this.

After the long wait to stitch Kara back up, I got the coolest job on the planet, spreading the news. I started first by calling my Dad, who was at work and could not get away due to the suddenness of the event. I gave him the great news, then my cell phone signal died. So I went into the waiting room and told Kara’s parents and brother Derek and his wife April. That was fun. I then got my cell phone signal back and I called my mom, my church, my pastor, and all our friends. It was great fun.

The rest of the day was spent resting, and waking every hour or two to assist with feedings.

Baby's a comin'

So that whole thing about having a baby on Monday was thrown away this morning when the doctor called and said we were having it today. Whoa. Kara has more amniotic fluid that she should, so he wants to do this today. We will see how it goes. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. And please pray.

God is amazing

I haven’t blogged in a while. I guess my mind has been elsewhere, preparing for baby and all, which is coming on Monday. Wow it’s so close.

On a different note, I have a tough week. I have been studying 1 John for the past couple of weeks and have been preaching on love. It has been a great series, and I have learned a whole heck of a lot about love trough this.

During this study, God impressed upon me a message like I have never experienced before, I was so emotional all week, so tired, so wiped out, almost like I was carrying this message as a burden until I was able to deliver it. This was weird for me because I am not a feely faith kind of guy, total logic for me. I am not an emotional kind of guy either, I watched the Passion and didn’t shed a tear, not that I wasn’t moved, it was a great movie, its just that I am not an emotional person.

This week was different. Our service was great, we had 6 visitors come for the first time. On a side note, I was doing some census demographical studies of our area and found out that 2%-3% of the area high school attendance has been through our doors this year. Whoa.

Well anyways, I got up and delivered the message, which was different than any other I have done before, and we had a response that was amazing. I bought paint sticks and we were going to write on them something in our life that was an improper fulfillment of the core need of humanity to be accepted, loved, and approved by our fellow man, and then we were going to snap them in half and throw them away and take communion. The response was great, and then just last night I got this e-mail from one of our college students:

Dear Tom, Tonight ******* helped me pray to jesus and accept him into my heart. She explained to me what being a christian was all about, and youth group tonight really made me think and made me feel. Getting rid of the old, and in with the new. I just want to thank you for everything you explain each week, you do a great job. I love going to youth group and learning new things, it makes me feel so much better about myself. So..thank you =]

Wow,what can I say, but God is amazing. I knew that God was going to move on that night, and I had been praying all day about it, and I had our amazing adult leaders praying all day about it too. There was someone there to pray over every single paint stick that was handed out, and some others who prayed over every chair as they were set up. And God moved. He is amazing.

George Barna Interview - SHIFT '07 Conference

Thank you George Barna!

David vs. the Squirrels

If you didn't see the interview on youtube, David has a thing about squirrels, he thinks they are evil. This is great. Animated Crowder is great.

Baby's a Comin'

This is it folks, we are coming down to the wire. Nolan or Naomi will be here shortly. Kara contracted gestational diabetes, so our doctor wants to deliver early (fine by me). So this week, tomorrow to be exact, we have a test scheduled, an amnio, to make sure that the Baby's lungs are ready to take on the world.

After this test, we go back to the doctor, Thursday, to discuss the results and also to schedule the C-Section. I am excited to find out if it is Nolan or Naomi. I have been fine until now, now I am getting itchy and anxious to know. I think that the odds fall as follows, chances of Nolan coming 80%, Naomi 20%.

There is no pool, sorry. (well not that I know of anyways, if there is let me know, I want in.)

Easter Dinner

We had a great Easter. We went to church, and had a great worship service, and then came home to feast. I made a 10 lb ham shank. I have never made a ham before, so this was a nice challenge. I love cooking. I can have a rough day at work, come home and cook, and its like therapy. Its my hobby, I guess.

Well, I took the ham and injected it, yes injected, with a glaze sauce that I came up with (apple/grape juice, cherry juice, vanilla, brown sugar, honey), and I plugged the injection points with whole cloves. I then put the ham in a pyrex and roasted it at 200F from 8am to 5pm. Then I took the remainder of the ham glaze and thickened it with corn starch and started to glaze the ham every 10 minutes at 400F for the next hour.

Wow it was great. We have like 12 bags of ham in the freezer, but I'll eat it. (I also took the ham bone and boiled it with some shank peices and got about 9 cups of ham stock for soups.) We also had mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese mashed in it, steamed broccoli, and deviled eggs. It was a feast of Biblical proportions, and we are still enjoying it for lunches.

(O yeah, I baked the bone and gave it to the dog, nothing was wasted)

Isaac is so cute

The things that kids pick up and repeat is great. Isaac has been loving putting his hand out the window while we drive. Today on the way back from Meijers, shortly after the incident with the metal monstrosity, Isaac asked for his window to be down. He then said, "number five please, number five, with a diet, and French ries and something else."

That brightened things up a bit for sure.

Car Damage

Our coffee grinder burned out today, so we decided to go to walmart to get another one. I have been addicted to espresso lately, and I need my coffee tomorrow morning. On the way there, a big truck going very fast in the oncoming lane kicked up a very large piece of metal that flew up and cracked our car a good one.

I heard a clang, saw a big piece of metal come at us, and heard a crunch and bang noise. I pulled over to see the damage, and of course the driver was very nice, and courteous and drove away very fast. Well the big metal monstrosity gashed the side quarter panel, crunched the windsheild in the bottom corner, demolished the mirror, damaged the drivers door, damaged the car frame around the drivers door.

So, needless to say, this week is ending up just ducky.

construction season is here

So we got a letter in the mail the other day, it was from the post office. We have been informed that they have been trying to figure out how to deliver our mail with the upcoming construction on our road. We live on M-44, the road that connects the boonies with Grand Rapids, and it is going to be under construction from April to August, down to one lane, yee haw. So what can they do about the mail delivery, well this proves that we are way in the boonies, they are just not going to deliver it. Yeah you heard right. No mail delivery for us, we get to haul our booties down to the post office and pick it up ourselves. yee haw. And then I got home tonight to find a LARGE spray painted stake in our yard indicating where they will be digging...its literally 7 feet from our front porch. I can't wait for all the heavy duty construction digging machines to wake up both our children from their naps all summer long 7 feet from our front porch.. again I state, yee haw.

Man what a great article!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/

Rick Warren and Sam Harris debate on the existence of God.

This was an excellent article that I could not put down, I had to read all of it.

I warned you, don't start unless you have ten minutes.

two wasps

this has nothing to do with anything, but I have killed two wasps in my office today. What the heck is going on? It's still early in the year, its cold and windy outside, its barely April. Sorry had to get that off my chest.