Many Christians celebrate the season of Advent which begins today (Nov 30) and continues up through Christmas Day.  It is a way to build anticipation and often Biblical, Christ-centered excitement as a family/church in contrast to some of the messages we hear (e.g., from retailers and marketing experts).  Our family has done different things over the past couple of years, including a “Jesse Tree” and last year an advent calendar with stockings on the mantel.  Lois discovered today a free resource that looks excellent to help believers who want to focus on Advent in a devotional format:

Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC, has put together this Christ-centered devotional for families and churches.

The devotional provides helpful background on the celebration of the season of Advent:

The celebration of the season of Advent (which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day) dates back to the fourth century. It  is a time that focuses our attention on Jesus Christ’s birth and ministry as well as his Second Coming when he will return to redeem all of creation and rule with all power and authority. Since we can’t anticipate the day or the hour of Christ’s return, we are flled with both a sense of  joyful expectation and humble reverence, with our spiritual focus being on lives of prayer and preparation.

We’ve downloaded and printed a copy of this free resource; each day’s devotional includes a short reading, a Scripture passage, an “adult’s” prayer, and even a “children’s prayer.”  In addition, each day also includes a hymn complete with sheet music — some of which are familiar, some less so.  Fittingly, the first is one that our church sang together this morning: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

We invite you to join our family as we celebrate the season of Advent, and re-ignite our hearts with the joy of Christ’s coming!

Our newest addition continues to be a family favorite, with her two older brothers especially vying for the chance to hold her.  Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure.

This is a shot of her cute little face, with a chopstick adjacent to show how small her tiny fingers are:

Here’s Bethany chilling with a doll *grin*…

And big brother Matthew adoring her:

… and even holding her in a baby sling!

Now that we’re all settled in back home, I can reflect a little bit about our newest blessing and how she entered the world.  While our blog’s female audience typically enjoys reading birth stories, those of you who are men tend to check out (and understandably so!).  However, if you’re willing to read on, I promise that this one is different and more interesting than most!

With most women, the more babies that they have, the quicker the labor.  But unfortunately I’m not like most women.  With my 3rd and 4th babies, my labor got LONGER.  This time, I started feeling contractions (tightening of the uterine muscle which eventually results in the baby getting pushed out) at 5pm on Wednesday evening.  After 20+ hours of labor, we decided to head into the hospital to have me examined; and discovered that  I was only 2-3 cm dilated (for the uninitiated, 10 cm = “baby coming out”).   At this point, my labor stalled and with a very tired body, we opted to have the nurses administer pitocin intravenously in order to speed up the labor.

Within 20 minutes, I began to experience regular contractions.  Whereas up to that point I was only feeling light contractions every 20-60 minutes, I began feeling intense contractions every 2 minutes, each lasting 1 minute long, which meant I only had about one minute of respite between each one.  Yet, after about two hours of this, much of which was spent walking back and forth in the hallway, the midwife said I was only 6-7 cm dilated.  I was disappointed because I was already feeling that I couldn’t go on much longer.  At this point, we were all thinking we were in for another hour or two before my body could deliver the baby — and I could scarcely imagine enduring another two hours of intense pain.

My midwife suggested that I take a hot shower, seated, to help me relax and because the water can help lessen the pain somewhat.  With this, I agreed to step into the shower stall in the room’s private bathroom.  As soon as the warm water hit my body, there was relief, even as I endured another intense contraction.  At this point, the nurses and midwife went back to the nurse’s station, and Evers went back into the room to make a phone call to check on the kids. Everyone left my side so I could work through each contraction in the shower.

One minute later I felt the need to stand up from the shower stool and immediately another contraction kicked in.  At that moment I yelled out, “I need to poop!”  A couple of seconds later I screamed, “BABY!  BABY!  BABY!”  The baby had slipped out of me and right onto the tile FLOOR!  I was shocked.  Evers raced in a split second later and scooped her (crying loudly) off of the floor (with water still running and me standing over her in a panic, with umbilical cord still attached).  Right behind him came the midwife and nurses and they, with towels and other supplies, began to transfer me and the baby to the bed.  As you can imagine, everyone was shocked, but calm nonetheless given the circumstances.  From the time I was told I was 6-7 cm dilated to the time I delivered the baby was only less than 10 minutes.  I kept asking the hospital staff if the baby’s head was alright and was reassured that she was perfectly healthy with no injuries, even after such a traumatic entry into the world.

Now, wasn’t that a grand finale?  Some interesting points worth noting after such a delivery:

• Bethany is now known in this particular hospital as the shower stall baby.  Thus far she’s the only shower stall baby in the hospital history.
• This kind of delivery is what I call an unattended or unassisted child birth.  Evers wishes he’d been there to catch her, so he could say he did; but since he was first to hold her out of the womb, we’ll give him some credit.
• The first thing every person who attended me during my hospital stay said was, “Wow. . . so I heard. . . you had an interesting delivery.”  No argument with that!
• The baby came out really clean, without the usual wipe down after delivery.  No additional cleaning was needed, as she got a shower upon arrival!

And just for kicks, here’s a picture of the actual shower stall where Bethany was delivered, after it was all cleaned up.  According to Evers, she was in the back right corner when he rushed in and picked her up.

Lois and Bethany were discharged from the hospital this morning.  They stayed one extra evening to ensure Bethany’s blood glucose levels remained consistent (which they did), in light of her low birth weight (SGA – “small for gestational age”).  Here’s a photo that illustrates how tiny she is, holding my left pinky finger:

And all her older brothers and sisters looking at her last night in the hospital:

… followed a bit later by the “traditional” zombie stare at the screen for a bit of entertainment/distraction:

We are so grateful for the support of friends, and for the Lord’s mercies in answering so many of our prayers for both Lois and Bethany’s well-being.

Here’s her big sisters cradling her this morning at the hospital:

And a photo of our big happy family heading home!

And Lois cheerfully nursing Bethany for the first time at home:

And Bethany tucked cozy in her little bassinet:

Bethany Hope Ding

Born today at 5:57pm PST in Los Gatos, CA

Measured in at 5 lbs 5 oz, 19 inches long, and very healthy!

Mom and baby are doing well.  Thanks be to the Lord.

Bryan Chapell’s “He is Able and Willing” message (available online for streaming or download) really helped me gain perspective when trials hit.  He based his message on Ephesians 3:20-21 which reads:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Chapell’s main point was that when we feel we are beyond help or hope, the promise in Ephesians gives us hope in that God is able to do far more than we ask or imagine.   What struck me were the words “far more” because when we are despairing, we fall into the wrong thinking of not being able to crawl out of our holes, even with God’s help.  Not only is God able to help us, He is able to do far more than we could ever envision.  So God is able, but is He willing to help?  The answer is a definite YES.  Why?  Because His glory is at stake.

Whether you’re in the stage of life where you struggle with singleness, infertility, health issues, or relational conflicts, remember that God is able and willing.  It is hard for me not to despair from time to time because of a personal trial I’m still experiencing has been ongoing for three years now.   When I dwell on the length of the trial and no prospect of this trial resolving soon, I despair.  Ephesians 3:20-21 opened my eyes to see that there is triumph and hope because the God I trust in is able to do far more than my little mind can imagine.  Not only that, He is more than willing to help me.  This is an awesome promise and hope for anyone who thinks that God may have abandoned them and left them to figure out things on their own.

Thanks to my good friend MB for introducing me to the art of hair bow making, I have now made lots of pretty hair clips for my girls.  I just can’t believe how easy and fast they are to make.  Of course my girlies look so cute wearing them.  I’m just being a bit biased here.

For those who are interested in making these pretty hair clips, I got my supplies from www.Trimweaver.com and an excellent tutorial is located here.

Here are the hair clips I made thus far:

Here are the girls wearing their new clips: