My alarm doesn’t go off for another half hour, but I give up on trying to get comfortable to sleep. Zeke feels like he grew quite a bit during the night, and I have a new little area of stretched out skin right above my belly button that I can see and it burns any time I move in any way that effects it, such as walking.

Friday night I was in bed at 8, feeling like I had some type of flu bug coming on. I laid in bed searching on line for the hopes that it might be a sign that we would be meeting our little boy very soon. And after finding out that it very well could be, a couple people reaffirmed that it might be early labor signs.

All through the night I had contractions, but I was able to relax enough and sleep through most of them. I figured i’d wake up if they got to the point of needing to go to the hospital. The morning came, and after being in bed for almost 13 hours I was feeling a lot better with not feeling like I was getting sick any more, but my body felt bruised all over my back, shoulders and belly.

I am so glad all of this discomfort happened over the weekend with Tim at home to help with Hannah. I have a hard time bending over now, and carrying Hannah is a chore. I’m not looking forward to this week with Tim going back into the office and not around to help as much. He was such a life saver with Hannah, and a great support for me throughout the weekend. I’m really regretting the fact that we canceled the induction for tomorrow morning now. I really want to be done.

My pregnancy with Hannah was so much easier, I guess that’s why I’m doing this again so soon. I don’t remember ever getting to the point of actually saying, “I want to be done.” feeling this way makes me really nervous because I’m not at the hard part yet.

We just had our 39 week check-up, and I still haven’t progressed from 2 weeks ago. Baby did drop to station 1 or 2, so that’s good, he doesn’t have too much further to go. We canceled the scheduled induction for Monday, and moved it to next Friday, the day my mom flies up, in hopes that I’ll go into labor on my own. My next appointment is on Wednesday, the due date. We’ll strip my membranes and that’ll hopefully get things going on their own instead of having to induce if Zeke isn’t here yet.

God is really teaching us a lot while we wait for Zeke’s arrival. One of those things having to do with Tim’s grandfather who isn’t doing well, and we’re just waiting for the time God welcomes him home. If he goes before Zeke is here then Tim will definitely stay in MN. If Zeke is born before Tim’s grandfather goes, then there may be a chance of Tim getting to go out for the funeral depending on timing and everything. Tim’s brothers are flying out to PA tomorrow to see him, it’s just not possible for Tim right now to go with them.

It’s a good thing God is in control of everything, ’cause we would totally screw it up, and that has been a huge discussion lately on trying to figure out if we try to rush getting Zeke here so his birth is out of the way so Tim can be free to go be with family when the time comes. We’d rather let things happen naturally, and that sets everything completely in God’s hands this next week waiting for life and death, and that’s how it should be.

Please pray for Tim and his family through this sad and exciting time. It’s been hard to be excited about getting to meet our son soon, and I really want to be able to concentrate on the excitement we should have about a new birth in our family. I’m looking forward to the end of this process, while trying to be open to what God is teaching us right now.

We are 9 days away from Baby Boy (Zeke)’s due date and still haven’t figured out a middle name for him. The first thing on my mind this morning when I woke up was trying to figure out a middle name and came up with a list of names with Tim while he was still half asleep.

So here’s the list of middle names we’ve thought of for

Ezekiel ________ Schmoyer…

Caleb

Jacob

Jake

Jesse

Joel

Nathan

Leave a comment on which you like best (not a reply to email if you’re getting this by email) or if we’re friends on facebook you can give your vote on my profile page where I put up the pole on there. I’d like to keep the votes in one area, but will do a 2nd for my blog readers to have a voice too. That way I wont have to go hunting all over to try to tally up the score.

If you have any other recommendations we’re willing to hear those too.

Last week on Tuesday I got a scare that we might have been meeting baby boy. A little after 8pm I was feeling contractions pretty consistently and got my timmer app out on my iPod to see how close they were. They were averaging about every 3 minutes for almost a minute long. At that point Tim and I were trying to remember how far apart they’re supposed to be when you go to the hospital, so I had to go find the workbook we did in our birthing class last year. I hadn’t read up on anything until Tuesday night, and figured it might be time to start! When I read that you’re supposed to go in to the hospital when the contractions are 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long for 1 hour, I got a little nervous, but read to tell if it’s true labor to walk around and see if it gives any relief. So I decided to go upstairs and pack my hospital bag finally. While packing I couldn’t distinguish when one contraction was starting and ending, so I figured we were okay, and then went to Wal-mart to walk around a little more and pick up a couple items.

Good news, my hospital bag is finally packed! I’ve had Baby Boy’s hospital bag and Hannah’s overnight bag packed for a little while, but hadn’t bothered with mine.

So Thursday was our last check-up. I was 1 centimeter and 70% effaced and planning a trip down to the cities right afterwards. My doctor gave me the okay with the safety net of hospitals in the city, and one at the half way point to home. She told me she is waiting for our little boy to come any day now. Hearing that makes me nervous not knowing when he is coming. So I look forward to every Thursday to go in and see how I’ve progressed. Only 3 more days until our next check-up. Hopefully Baby Boy doesn’t come too early. I know he’ll be fine right now, but I’d rather go the whole 40 weeks if possible for him to fully develop and for the fact that right now he’s a lot easier to take care of than he will be out of the womb. Plus my mom doesn’t fly in until October 1st, so if we can meet little boy on his due date, that would be ideal!

Now for Hannah’s news…

Last Wednesday I took Hannah up to the church during the fall ministry registration for our daily outing. There were lots of kids there so I took advantage of standing Hannah up to walk instead of crawl as much as possible, and she did great! She watched the older kids and wanted to keep up and did a ton of walking all on her own, not holding on to anything. And to my surprise, for the very first time Hannah got herself back up to standing after falling down by just pushing herself up off the floor, not needing anything to pull herself up with! At home Hannah doesn’t have as much motivation to walk, but I’m trying to give her as many opportunities to get around other kids so she’ll walk. It’s a little tough to carry 2 kids all the time, so her walking will be a huge help. Thursday and Friday Hannah walked a bit while playing with cousins, and then yesterday after church service was over she did some walking around everyone visiting.

Most mornings Hannah is great at playing quietly in her crib until Tim or I go get her out. Which has been a huge blessing during the 3rd trimester and with how exhausted I’ve been. This morning though I heard Hannah crying for a little bit around 7am, so I went and picked her up and she just had a very sad cry that wouldn’t go away. I let her have her pacifier out of the crib, grabbed her blanket and doll and we cuddled on the couch for a while. Hannah is usually ready to play right away in the morning, but she wasn’t interested in anything but being held. So I held her until my back couldn’t take any more and we went upstairs and laid in mine and Tim’s bed, and ended up falling asleep, which never happens either. Hannah loves to play on our bed, but all she did was lay there and want to be held.

So the morning is almost over, and Hannah hasn’t played at all. All we’ve done is cuddle and sleep and try to make her comfortable. She doesn’t have much of an appetite either, which is opposite from any other time. Hannah wasn’t even interested in what I was eating. I forced one bite of oatmeal down her, and she willingly took a few sips of milk, but that was it. Pray for my little girl that her body will fight whatever is trying to take over. She’s not coughing or anything, no symptoms except for a low fever, no appetite, very tired and cuddly.

This comes from Jackie Kendall this morning in her Hope Alert email subscription. This one really stuck out this morning with all of our students in school for the year now, and fall ministries kicking off this coming Sunday.

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Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. Colossians 2:8

I have spent 4 decades consistently in awe of the many Christians who have built their lives around a theology that is based on a “Voyeuristic”(relying on the opinion of others) view of God and not a theology based on God’s Word. While reading an article by John Piper I came across this information that made me shout an “AMEN” that I am sure John Piper heard all the way in Minnesota!

“One of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later. Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, “Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory,” in order to confirm what he had found.”

Earning a doctorate in Theology without owning a Bible-that remark made me think of thousands of Christians that I have met across the US who want to know Jesus more intimately but they still do not spend time each day in God’s Word-the ultimate textbook for theology. Recently I heard Francis Chan:

The most significant lesson I have ever learned-I learned in High School. In High School I learned-all I needed was to read the Word of God for myself.

I too learned in High School that reading God’s Word daily was not an optional activity. Unless you want to build a theology based on what others say about God, voyeuristic spirituality does not result in vibrant intimacy with Jesus.

Fewer and fewer people in America are in love with God’s Word and the “fall out” is becoming increasingly apparent! Recently while reading about the underground church in China (that is thriving and growing while the church is shrinking in America)-I came upon this remark that made me weep. One of the underground church leaders was sharing about the 50 house churches he is over. He told Philip Yancey that several of the house churches are being led by girls between the ages of 16-20. I just cried because of the passion and dedication of teen girls in the underground church in China in great contrast to the Christian teens in America who are more concerned about finding the RIGHT PAIR OF JEANS or getting a pedicure then they are about making a difference in their high schools. Too many teens in America are imitating the adults they are around-more concerned about burning candles before the god of mammon (stuff) then loving God’s Word and sharing it with others.

Is your theology drenched and saturated with God’s Word or is it a shallow caricature of the truth? Please read Job 23, TREASURE HIS WORDS!

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You can click here if you would like to sign up to be on their email list too. Jackie Kendall is one of my favorite authors with co-writing “Lady in Waiting” which I recommend to every young lady and woman to read, single or married. She is also the author of many other books, including her newest “Free Yourself to Love” which has had a huge impact on my life.