Attempting To Capture Every Moment November 23, 2008

The past week with our new son has been unimaginably blessed.  When I use the word blessed, I mean circumstances that could have only come from the hand of God.  Nehemiah’s demeanor is tranquil.  He lives up to the meaning of his name by being “comforted by God”.  If you have prayed for us during this pregnancy, labor or time let me tell you I feel your prayers!  Thank you so very much. 

I am doing my best not to let these moments pass like so many have advised me.  There have been countless cherished moments.  I cannot describe or write to you about all of them, nor will I try.  I have chosen this one to show you, it will be one I treasure forever.  We praise God for our extraordinary bambino.

 Arissa

Today is… Part 1 November 18, 2008

Today is..

The last day I really remember was Friday. Arissa was tying up loose ends at her school and I came by to help her get her teaching stuff packed up. We decided it would be fun to go out and celebrate her last day of school. I thought “this may be our last chance to go out on a date pre Nehemiah” So we decided to grab a Redbox movie and head over to PF Chang’s. I have been craving Chinese cuisine this whole pregnancy, I’m pretty sure I had more cravings than Arissa. As we pulled in to the restaurant Arissa started to have some major cramps. I passed it off as false labor and we still went in to eat. We got to the hostess and she told us that wait was 45 minutes, Arissa went to the bathroom and when she came back she said “I’m sorry but we really can’t stay I need to go home.” Of course my first response was to rush out of the restaurant with my wife in my arms. Well not quite. I said ” are you sure you can’ make it through we are already here we’ve got to eat right?’ This time she had just a bit more urgency behind her statement when she suggested that we leave so of course I said “do you want to order to go?” Now I know you are all thinking oh what a typical male not rushing to the needs of his full term wife. But If you know my wife you know that when she needs to eat she needs to eat now, so it took me a minute to realize the greater need of the comfort of home over the delicious taste of some PF Changs. That and my pregnancy cravings are strong. So on the way home we decided to order some Chinese from a place a little closer to the house. As we were driving over we kept seeing people outside on the streets and in the parking lots just standing around looking up in the sky. It was the strangest thing. I thought the world was ending or something and we didn’t have any idea. When we finally got to Super China 8 or whatever it was called I heard someone say ” Look honey there is the shuttle” I looked up and to my amazement a space shuttle was launching in the sky. The night sky lit up like it was day with a bright orange fire ball. Arissa got out of the car in time to see it fly into the distance. It was an amazing start to a great weekend.