What A Day! Whew!

So Karen got up at 9am this morning contracting. Pretty good but spread apart. The boys had their baseball picnic and awards at 10 am so we went with our luggage in the car and with Gramma and Grampa already prepared to take Joshua and Jonathan should we have to exit early. Walking through the ball fields the contractions got closer and closer together. We were able to see both boys get their awards and play a little before Karen decided it was time to get closer to the hospital since we're a good 40-50 minutes away from the hospital we were supposed to deliver at. We drove in with contractions about every 5-6 minutes. They took us into the triage area and put Karen on the monitors and checked her cervix. She was still only dialated 3. How disappointing! But her contractions were still coming regular and getting harder. The doctor was hesitant to send us away so he convinced Karen to stay at least an hour and let him check her again. I got her some light food to eat since she was getting shaky since she missed the wonderful baseball picnic hotdog lunch! After the hour was up the doctor checked her again and she was still a 3! He advised us that he would discharge her, but if she could stay somewhere close for the night it wouldn't be a bad idea just in case! We were discharged at 3 pm. We made the trek home with Karen contracting all the way. We arrived home approximately 3:45 pm and spoke with the boys for about 5 minutes and then Karen went to take a shower. On her way up the stairs her water broke! We were back in the car heading back to the hospital by 4 pm! We arrived at the hospital at approximately 4:25 pm. ((Shhh... don't tell the police! It's actually fun when you have a good reason to drive at approximately 100 MPH and to go through red lights! How exhilerating!)) And it's a good thing that Dad drove fast because Jeremiah was born at 5:05 pm! There was no stopping that boy from coming out! We hardly had time to get into a room and we didn't even have time to sign all the paperwork! The doctors weren't ready ... but Jeremiah was! There was a flurry of about 12-15 different nurses and doctors going this way and that but Karen pushed maybe three times and that boy came flying out - making it difficult for the doctor to catch him! Half the doctors who were supposed to be there didn't even arrive until after he was born! :)

He is beautiful.

Sorry no pictures... I expected him to be a world-wide phenomenon by now, but I left the camera with Karen at the hospital when I came home to put the boys down for the night. Tomorrow there will be pictures. Promise.

Joshua absolutely can't wait to go hold his baby brother tomorrow. Jonathan fell asleep on the car ride home (much slower than the car ride there by the way!). Me and Joshua had a good conversation about Jacob and Jeremiah. Joshua recognized that we were at the hospital where Jacob was born and of course had questions about whether Jeremiah was going to grow up and be healthy or if he was going to live a short life like Jacob. It was a great time of talking about how God is in control of each of our lives - how He is the Giver and Taker of lives and that our lives are but a vapor that appears for a moment and vanishes away. We got to talk about how we need to live each day for God for we don't know how long we have on this earth. Joshua then asked me why Jacob wanted to go up to heaven, or why God wanted Jacob in heaven instead of on earth. While I admitted that I don't pretend to know all the answers to that profound question, I did offer to him this idea: Sometimes God puts things in our lives to change us to be more like Him and to rely on Him and to know Him better. I believe that Jacob accomplished that in his short life and glorified God in that pursuit. We shared about how Jacob changed us, and changed our family, and changed our friends and even how Jacob changed some of you all around the world! And if that's all that God did through Jacob, then that's enough for me. His legacy lives on... oh to know the impact that he has left on each life.... only in Heaven.