Four and A Half Months and Some Change

"Time flies like the wind, fruit flies like bananas."

Our baby boy is 4 1/2 months old.  I (Gary) am 26 years old.  Allison is 24 years old.  That means if we don't have another kid we'll be empty-nesters at 44 and 42...still in our prime!  However, our first pregnancy and first baby has been easy - which makes us think they'll all be like this - which makes us want to have more.  I know we're naive, but it's hard not to be.   We're having a lot of fun right now.

Change is a coming with our family - mainly myself.  I've spent the past two years working with Fort Bend Young Life and it's been a great experience.  I was approach a while back about taking a job with a church here in Sugar Land as their Director of Student Ministry.  After much prayer, thought, talking with Allison, and interviewing I decided to accept the job which begins June 1st.  I'm excited and the opportunity and look forward to working with the pastor, other staff, and volunteers.  Young Life has been great to Allison and I, and we'll still be involved, but it will sorely be missed.  Shout out to Tig, Ali, Dana, and the committee for taking care of us so well.  

I'll post more about the new job later. 

Happy New Year

For us, 2010 started with a bang. Last week Allison became 36 weeks pregnant and we were excited about Eli coming the end of January. However, when Allison went to her doctor appointment Monday they told her she was dilated to a three and needed to go to the hospital. When she called she was really calm so never did I think she was going into labor. Once at the hospital we tried going home, but they wanted her to stay overnight for observation. The following morning (Tuesday) I talked to the nurses about letting us go home and they assured me if Allison hadn't progressed we could leave.

Twenty minutes later we find out Allison had dilated to a six and was now officially in 'active' labor. Soon after, an anesthesiologist came by to give her an epidural and her life (and mine) became much better. Around 2p a nurse came into the room and Allison began pushing. An hour later later the doctor came in and Eli James was born at 3:33p. We stayed another few nights at the hospital and were able to bring him home Thursday afternoon.

When I say "home" I mean the apartment we moved into while Allison was in the hospital. Unknowing that Eli would be born a month early we decided to move into an apartment from the house we'd been renting since we moved to Sugar Land. So, Wednesday a group of guys and myself moved four trailer loads of our belongings across town and they were life savers. Allison and I both are EXTREMELY grateful for all the help and support people have shown us this past week. Not only have people helped us move, but we had people visit the hospital(some with food - our pastor came up right after and prayed with us), decorate our hospital door, take great pictures of Eli, buy groceries for the apartment, provide air mattresses for our mothers, offer to let any of our family stay at their house, bring dinner this past week, and showered Eli with gifts. Allison and I have shed tears talking about privileged we are to be around such great people.

Speaking of great people, our moms were able to come down the day Eli was born and they've been wonderful. They single handedly transformed our apartment into a functioning home. We both agree our level of stress would be much higher without their presence.





We haven't gotten much sleep this week, but we have a beautiful son and wouldn't change anything.



Quote of the Week: (This occurred during contractions) Allison: Find a music channel or I will rip you apart!