9 years

Last week Mark and I celebrated our nine year anniversary! I can't believe that Mark and I have known each other almost 15 years. Wow! We have grown so much in these past years together. The Lord has changed him and me in so many different ways. I look back on our time together and I am blown away when I think about where the Lord has brought us...

We met at Messiah College. I was a young freshman, just turned 19 years old. He was 22 years old and in his senior year. He was living with my sister's boyfriend at the time, now husband. I saw Mark and immediately was interested in him. He was super attractive...spikey hair, JNCO jeans, polo shirts and a visor. He was deep into his raving stage. :) I would come over to his apartment just to talk to Dana (yeah right) and we ended up meeting. A few days later Mark asked me out and that was the beginning.

We dated a LONG time....about 5 years. We both do not recommend dating this long....just get engaged and get married already. We broke up a few times. I went to England for a semester and pined away for him. Then came home and he broke up with me. I was slightly distraught to the say the least. :)

We got married and the Lord really began working on our lives. I never thought in a million years that I would marry a pastor. I was not one of those girls who always dreamed of that. Mark's transition into ministry has been gradual and I am thankful for that. When Riverside church was going to bring him on full time he came home and told me about this opportunity. I was like "Sure, go for it." Not at all knowing what ministry involves...

Anyway...the Lord led us to seminary and now back to Philly to church plant. What a journey we have been on! I am so thankful that the Lord has called us to this place and this task. It has been a time to depend on the Lord like I have never experienced. We were sharing with a mentor about the stresses in our life right now...ministry and family. We shared that both of us have lost that sense of being carefree. He, who also does ministry full time, resonated with us. He spoke truth into our lives, "Losing that sense of carefree is a price you pay when you do full time ministry. But the blessings that you receive by seeing the Lord work in other people's lives is well worth the exchange." So thankful for Mark and the opportunity to journey through life with him. Can't wait to see what the next year hold for us as we approach our ten year anniversary.

Julian's birth story

It's been such a long time since I have blogged that I had to go on my friend's blog to find my own blog. Ridonkulous. Thanks Maggie Ainsworth!

So...Julian Reid was born on July 3rd. I thought I would recap his birth story. It went NOTHING like I had thought it would. The reality is that labor and delivery never do.

I was hoping that I would have him at like 37 weeks. 37 came and went. Then 38 weeks came and went. I was starting to get really antsy. At 39 weeks on Saturday morning, July 2nd I started having some irregular contractions in the morning. I didn't think much of it. I went to the grocery store with Oliver and to the produce store. I kept having some strong contractions but I just kept thinking they were braxton hicks because they were so irregular.

The afternoon came and went. We invited some friends over for dinner. Thankfully Mark and our friend Brandon cooked dinner for Bethan and me. Bethan and I were sitting outside talking. I kept saying that I was having contractions. We decided we should start timing them. Thanks to the iphone Bethan found an app that times contractions. However they were so irregular that we really couldn't time them.

Everyone left our house around 9 PM. We put the boys to bed and I took a shower and came downstairs to watch some TV. This was at 10 PM. I was still having contractions so I thought I would time them. I too downloaded the app and saw that my contractions were about 3 or 4 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. Uh oh. This is really happening.

I stood up from the couch and my water broke...a slow trickle this time. TMI...maybe....Anyway.
I went into Mark who was doing something at the computer and told him that my contractions are pretty close together and I think my water broke. So I called the doctor and she said to come to the hospital. This was 10:30. I was still unsure if I was in labor.

Mark's first question was: "Do I have time to take a shower and shave?" My response, "Why in the world do you need to do that?" Mark: "Because if we have the baby there will be pictures."
Me: "Oh, should I like to do my hair and put on makeup?" Mark: "No! Why? You are in labor. Who cares?" Lovely.

So Mark takes a shower while we wait for his sister to come and stay with the kids. Meanwhile, my contractions get really strong during this 30 minutes of waiting. Kathy shows up at 11 PM. Poor girl she rushed like a maniac to get here.

We left the house at 11:00. I was in a lot of pain. I was kind of panicking at this point...pretty much yelling at Mark to not get in an accident but to hurry up.

We get to the hospital and I immediately tell the nurses that I want an epidural as soon as possible. They are kind of taking their time and trying to small talk with me. It is now like 11:40 PM and the contractions are strong. WHERE IS MY EPIDURAL?? "It's coming. We need to run fluids."

At one point the nurse looks at me during a contraction and she can see that I am in a lot of pain I tell her I feel like I need to push. Uh oh. We have only been there for like a half hour. I know in my head at this point that we are past the threshold of an epidural. I am panicking in my mind.

They move me to the labor and delivery room. They check me. I am 8 cm. At this point I am a mess. Here are the phrases coming out of my mouth...
"Help me. Someone please help me."
"Give me anything. Please! Can't you give me something?"
"I can't do this. This is not what I had planned!!!"

In walks the OB...."Dr. Zimmerman, help me!!! Please help me!"

Meanwhile during all of this nobody is responding to me. Mark is holding my hand and smirking. The nurses are all staring at me blankly. I know what they are thinking but don't want to admit it. I am going to push this baby out with no medication and there is nothing stopping it. Oh my word!!!

They drop the table. My OB tells me to listen to her and focus. Thankfully this labor I am not screaming the "F" word like I was with Oliver. Still I am frantic and not really listening to them. I kept thinking I cannot do this! There is no way.

Somehow it is time to push. I don't want to but can't help it. Two pushes later sweet little guy Julian is out. I was soooo relieved that I didn't even think about what sex our baby might be. They put him up on my chest and I see his boy parts. It is 12:19 AM. Mark and I smile and laugh...another boy....another little blessing. We are so thankful!

Acts 29

So we found out that Mark and I were approved by Acts 29! We are so very excited! We now enter the candidate phase. In order to be an official Acts 29 church we need to have 40 committed members. Adult members...Oliver, Basil, Baby Jane, Baby Caleb and Josiah don't count. :(

This is very exciting for Mark and me. It is humbling too. This continues to confirm the Lord's calling on our life to church plant. This also pushes us along to stay faithful to the path that the Lord has put before us. It also continues to push us to pray, pray and pray some more. Trinity is only going to happen if the Lord allows it to happen. He is the only One that can draw people to Him and bring them from death to life. So we are utterly dependent on Him. I'm thankful that it doesn't depend on me or Mark because eventually we would screw it all up. Not eventually, but pretty soon...if not already. :)

A29 Assessment

So some of you may know that we are planting a church in the Abington area. The name of the church is Trinity. Here's the link. www.tcphilly.org

We are hoping to be part of a church planting network called the Acts 29 Network.
http://www.acts29network.org/
It is a bunch of churches with similar theology and core values. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle started the network. Our church in Louisville, Sojourn, is part of this network.

In order to become part of the network there is an extensive process that we must go through. In the Spring, Mark started the paper work. It was crazy! He filled out at least 30 pages of questions ranging from theology to personal stuff. It took him a long time.

The last part of the process is a face to face interview with the potential planter and his wife. Mark and I went into downtown Philly this past Thursday to do this interview. It was intense but such a neat experience.

When we got there we sat down with the two pastors who were doing the assessment. They asked if we were nervous. I responded, "No, Mark's the one on the hot seat." They really didn't say anything when I said that. That should have been my first clue. :)

So basically the assessment focused just as much on me, if not more on me, than on Mark. They probed into lots of areas of our lives. They asked about my calling to church plant, Mark's leadership, our marriage and many, many other things. Some questions were not easy but seemed necessary.

Earlier that week I had gotten together with the pastor's wife of the church who had sent us down to seminary. Allison and I had such a wonderful time together! She has been such a role model for me and such an encouragement and supporter. I am so thankful for her!

After the assessment and my time with Allison and some other church planting things, I took a step back and looked at my life. I was filled with joy and gratitude. I truly love my life and this adventure that the Lord has in store for us. So far, church planting is not very easy but so fulfilling. I feel so humbled and honored to be doing this. I really would not want to be anywhere else. I love being home with my boys and planting this church with Mark. No one said this would be easy. It's not easy, but it filled with purpose and I am so thankful the Lord has called us to this.

The Doctor is in...

One of the many things that I love about Oliver is his love of people and his ability to be friends with everyone and anyone.

We are throwing a harvest party for the people in our neighborhood and he is dying to invite every single person that we meet. We were down at the playground the other night and he made friends with the two little boys who were also playing. When it was time to go he looked at them and asked if they were coming to the harvest party. Secretly I was soooo glad he did this. I had been talking to the mom and really wanted to continue talking or to see her again but wasn't sure how to do it. Well...Oliver knew how to do it. He simply asked. Needless to say they are now getting an invitation to our harvest party.

Today while Mark went mountain biking at Valley Green, the boys and I went walking. There is a road they have there called Forbidden drive. It's road that leads through the woods. There are lots of runners, bikers and walkers. A lady ran by with her dog. He told her that her dog was very cute. He then proceeded to invite her to our Harvest party. This time it was just slightly more awkward for me. I just kind of laughed uncomfortably and didn't know what to say....

Oliver LOVES his friends. Today my dear friend Jill came over with her daughter Ava. Oliver and Ava love each other. Ava looked cute as a button today. She had these adorable stretch jean little "hot pants" on. She's going to be a "looker". :) I think Oliver already has a crush on her.

They asked to go play in Oliver's room. A few minutes later Oliver is going potty and Ava is laying on his bed....kind of propped up on her elbow. I ask what they are doing. Ava answers, "Not much, just playing doctor." Uh, oh. Should we be worried? :)

First of many

Tonight I had the first of many conversations with Oliver about my mom....It went something like this.

It was bedtime and he has a little basket of stuffed animals. I pretended that one of the animals was waving and saying "Pick me. Pick me."
Me: "You know why I do this silly little game with you? Because my mom used to it with me when I was little."
Oliver: "Oh...who's your mommy?"
Me: "Well, you don't know my mommy because she is with Jesus."
Oliver: "Why?" (of course)
Me: "She was sick and went to be with Jesus."
Oliver (puzzled, concerned and frustrated): "Hmmm...can I please go and visit her so that I can know her?"
Me to myself: I sure do wish that you would have known her. She would have LOVED you two little stinkers.

Oh...just a short update on Oliver and his Lyme disease. He is fine. Last week he had flu like symptoms. I took him to the the doctor on Friday and he checked out fine. However later on that night I saw a bull's eye type rash on his upper thigh. I called the doctor that night and they saw him the next morning. They diagnosed him with Lyme and put him on 21 days of antibiotics. It is a long course of antibiotics because he started developing some other rashes too. The rashes have now gone away and his symptoms seem to be getting better. He is still tired but acting normal. Hopefully there will be no lasting problems from this....

It's been so long...

It has been so long since I have posted on this blog that I forgot the name of my blog. Ridiculous. I had to go back and look and find it somehow....

So much has happened since I have last written that I feel overwhelmed by what to write. So I will keep this post fairly short. If I think about all that I can write about I just decide not to write. Hence a very short blog post...

Needless to say...Mark just looked over my shoulder and said, "You are updating your blog?!?!!? What the heck is going on with you?" ok....so.....

We moved back to PA. We are living in a very cute, little town called Oreland. We love our new house. We looked and looked for a rental and finally we came across this one. My dad checked the rentals out for us while we were still living in Louisville. Everything he saw was basically a dump. He also told many of the landlords this. I am thankful I didn't know that because I would have been very embarrassed.

Anyway....we love it here! We are starting to get to know our neighbors and love our backyard.

This weekend however we had a "1, 2, 3 punch"
1. Mark got the stomach bug and was in the bathroom a good part of the night. No more details needed. I did however kick him out of the bed and made him sleep on the futon. I'm sorry. No throw up germs were going to come near me. It had been passed around from Basil to Baby Jane Rogers to Brandon and then Mark.
2. The next morning I walked downstairs to wash the germ infested sheets and I discovered that our basement had flooded.
3. Oliver was diagnosed with Lyme disease.

So that was our weekend, folks. Nice and relaxing. ;)