A few more pictures of Jack Alexander

Here are a few more pictures of Jack. We’re in our room right now waiting for Jack to come back from the nursery. Everyone is doing great. Needless to say it’s been a whirlwind of a day. Stephanie and I got home after working in her classroom this afternoon and she said, “my stomach is filling kinda tight.” That was about 5:30. Jack was here at 8:16. 

No epidural for my wife. She was amazing! Here’s my boy and my beautiful wife. 

Meet my son!

It’s a few weeks early, but our little boy is finally here. Jack David Alexander was born at 8:16 p.m. on August 12th. He weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. 

It’s starting to hit me…

Yesterday was a great day at our house. Several of our friends from the church hosted a baby shower for us at the church yesterday morning and our faith family “showered” us with gifts for our son’s arrival. It was a really fun day for all of us including our four year old daughter who actually finished opening her gifts after we had already finished opening the gifts for Jack! She is really excited to be a big sister, and I am thankful for everyone who has worked so hard to include her in all the festivities of the arrival of a new baby.

When I got home last night, we went through all the gifts, set up the baby monitor, put together the high chair, made a huge stack of clothes to be washed, and everything else we could think of to get ready for Jack. He’s due at the end of the month, but I think we’re going to be ready by next week! 

I feel kinda weird saying this, but it really hit me yesterday as we were putting everything in place that we have a baby coming! In some ways, I think that is just a part of being Dad.

Moms have a constant reminder! 

And Dads are sometimes a little slow… 

But, it’s officially hit me… and though I know that the next six months will be a little crazy… lots of diapers, late night sessions of feeding and tears, etc… I’m obviously really excited to see my son. 

I appreciate your prayers for Jack’s healthy arrival and for my wife over the next 2-4 weeks as she deals with the homestretch of her pregnancy. At this point, she is still planning on starting the school year [she's a teacher] in order to get everything situated before her maternity leave. 

Stay tuned!

Returning to normalcy

After seven of the strangest days of my life, I’m finally returning to some sense of my normal life today. I’ve never had surgery before now, and I greatly underestimated the “recovery” process that was involved in this experience. I was expecting to be up and going a few days after my procedure. I had plans to take my daughter to a movie last week, spend a lot of time working on our church website from home, and mow the yard on Saturday. I was a bit off on those predictions. Instead I spent most of my time moving from my bed to my chair beside my bed or hobbling around our house. It was a pretty miserable few days that I am happy to leave behind. 

Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for my recovery. I got several nice cards in the mail, phone calls, and emails. I appreciate your thoughts. Most importantly, I appreciate my wife who took great care of me and waited until yesterday to tell me about all the funny and embarrassing things that happened while I was in recovery at the surgery center. I was healed enough to laugh about most of those.

The Big Day

Today is moving day. I’m sitting at the old house [the only option for internet service at this point] waiting for the crew to load up the UHaul. We’re finally moving into the church parsonage. 

A weird turn of events…

I left for camp a week ago knowing that the next few weeks were going to be a little odd for me. I had previously scheduled with my Senior Pastor to be out for some vacation time the next two Saturdays. Once that’s set, it’s set. I can’t really move around the time I’ve scheduled to be out. Heading to camp, I knew that I had a few things to take care of during vacation time including moving to a new house. I also went with the news that I was going to be needing surgery for a hernia. I really wasn’t excited about my vacation being dominated by the move and surgery didn’t sound very relaxing either.

Fast forward a week… I went to see the surgeon yesterday and I have an appointment for next Tuesday for that procedure. That was by far the most awkward doctor’s visit’s I’ve ever had. The surgeon had a medical student who is interning with him in the room yesterday. While trying to find my “issue” he said to the student, “put on some gloves. I want you to feel this.” He asked me about being off of work and if my work was too “strenuous” on my body. When I told him I was a pastor, his only medical advice was not to lift my bible if it weighed over 15 lbs.

So I’m still planning on being out of pocket for a few weeks. Luckily we have some great friends who are coming to help us move this Saturday since I can’t lift a whole lot. The doctor said I should be down for a few days so I’m taking a couple of sick days to lay in bed in the new house. I am excited about maybe getting to go to church with one of my best friends the following weekend before spending a few days on a mini-retreat with my two pastor buddies before returning to work.

I’ve never been cut open before so I appreciate your prayers. I’m a big baby so you might want to say a few prayers for my wife too.

Busy Saturday

As I write this, it’s approaching lunch time here on Saturday. I’ve just finished up the sermon for tonight and I’m about to meet a friend for lunch. My dog is here in my office. My wife and daughter are outside playing on the playground as we’ve been displaced from our house as someone comes by today to look at it. It’s been on the market now for almost 6 months and we’re moving into our church parsonage in two weeks so we’re hoping we have some eager buyers looking right now. 

Tomorrow afternoon I will head to Glen Lake, our Conference camp, to co-lead the first High School camp there this summer. It’s the one thing I’ve kept doing from my youth ministry days and as difficult as it will make next week with other stuff I have to get done, I am looking forward to it. I’m speaking on Monday night to open up our week and on Thursday during our closing worship. I’ve also got a sermon to write for next Saturday as well which is what will make the week busy, but it really should be a great week. 

After next Sunday, I’ll be on vacation for two weeks as we get settled into a new house. By the time I’m back, we’ll only be about 5-6 weeks away from my wife’s due date. So, all that’s to say, it’s a busy time for us, but I’m not complaining. We’re certainly excited about the change coming in our life whether that’s a new house, a new baby or a new rhythm to our lives. I have so much to be thankful for today. 

And to top it all off… worship is tonight, and I’m really looking forward to that. I guess I’ll pack up to head to my lunch appointment and try to catch a quick nap this afternoon to regain some energy before I come back up to get ready for worship. 

7 years and counting…

Stephanie and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary yesterday. It’s hard to believe seven years have already passed. We had a great dinner at Hoffbrau Steakhouse on Sunday night and on Monday, the entire family went to the golf course together. 

Here’s dinner. 

That’s the Texas Two-Step which includes a 20 oz. steak surrounded by onions and a few other carbs… 

Here’s another favorite restaurant of ours coming to the Arlington Highlands which we saw on Sunday Night. 

Desert was had at the Cheesecake Factory after spending some time browsing at Barnes & Noble. 

And here’s my girls on the golf course. This was Anna’s first trip to the course and she seemed to have a great time. 

We had a great day together. I can’t even put into words how blessed I feel to have Steph in my life. She will always be the best thing that has ever happened to me. 

 

A day at the Fort Worth Zoo

At the beginning of this year, I switched my day off to Mondays. For years I had tried to take Fridays off and was almost always unsuccessful at that. Anxiety about being ready for the weekend almost always pulled me into the office. But Mondays are wonderful. The weekend is complete. I haven’t started the sermon yet. It’s a great day to relax, and now that summer is here, I get to spend that time with the family.

Yesterday we decided our time would be spent at the Fort Worth Zoo. Anna was supposed to go with some friends on Friday of last week who had to cancel, but going on Monday mean that we could all go together. I would have to say that the Zoo is one of my favorite “kid” outings, and Anna had a great time. 

Here’s a few pictures from our Zoo day. 

Click for baby pictures!

A few updates…

1. I am still a pastor. I passed my annual interviews and officially began my three year residency program which is my last step before ordination. Mark your calendars now for June 2011. Overall, things went well. I did drop a little too much water on the baptism relay and lost a few points, but other than that…

2. Here’s the big news!

We’re officially expecting a boy! It took 2.5 seconds for everyone in the room [except for maybe the four year old] to know what we were expecting. It was a bit of “right place, right time” in term of where the camera picked up the first picture of our son if you know what I mean. If we had been planning on not finding out, we would have been pretty disappointed.

The absolutely best part of the experience was Anna’s excitement. When we first told her that we were expecting, I was a bit worried that she might have been disappointed if we found out a boy was coming. In the beginning, she was pretty set on having a baby sister. For some reason, in the last couple of weeks, though, she started talking about a boy baby and before we left the house today she told me that we were going to be having a boy baby. [I know it's a 50/50 shot. I'm not claiming she's a prophet yet]

Anyways, when our sonogram lady told us it was a boy, a huge smile immediately came across Anna’s face and she said, “Daddy, I was right! Mommy, I was right! We’re having a boy. We’re having a boy because I’m a girl and now we are going to have a boy!”

It was a really cool moment for the family.

We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for the birth of our son.

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