baby z
Miraculous Prayer
The doctor walked into my hospital room and said,
“You must be getting help from somewhere else because I can’t believe you are still here.”
I smiled big, “we have an incredible church family praying for us as well as all our friends and family. God’s taking care of us.”
“That must be the case as I really didn’t think I would still see you here.”
Have you ever been on the receiving end of what appears to be miraculous prayers?
I have been, but not quite like this. I’ve watched Him orchestrate my life in ways that I never thought possible. But never have I seen the answers come so quickly nor in such a way that it contradicts science. But we are blessed to say that is where we find ourselves now.
The doctors have grown more candid in their descriptions of the events that occurred a week and a half to two weeks ago. Literally using terms like “scary” {no joke}.
And yet, tomorrow marks 31 weeks. Truly no one, except Mr. Z, thought we would make it to this point. We all hoped we would, including the nurses and the doctors, but I don’t think any of us really believed the little one and I would.
But the Bible tells us in the book of James that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. We are blessed to testify that this is the TRUTH and truly, God is not a respecter of persons and you cannot earn His response.
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
Lord knows we are not perfect; we have not done everything “right;” and, we are not some kind of holy couple. We are simply Lindsey and Peter who have been blessed with a church family that believes 110 percent in the power of prayer, family and friends who do as well and a God who delights in answering the prayers of His children.
We don’t know how long our little one will stay put, but we do know that making it this far is a miracle in itself and we have grateful hearts.
So thank you to all who have been praying and please do not stop ;-) We know God is in control and His mighty hand is on us. We are forever grateful.
Read More5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Goals, Activities and Grace
Flowers from my sis and her family {love the toy for Baby Z}
There’s a dry erase board on the wall in my hospital room. The nurses write whatever meds I might need, scheduled tests, their names, the date, my goals and my activities on there.
Yes, I did write activities and goals. Want to know what they are?
Goals:
Rest and drink three pitchers of water
Activity:
Bed rest with bathroom privileges.
For real. Those are my goals and activities everyday. It is quite amusing if you think about it. The girl whose trained for four marathons (ran three), climbed her fair share of rock faces and ran plenty of other races biggest activity for the day is sitting in the shower or sitting in a chair to blow dry her hair.
And yet, God’s grace is so thickly upon me at this time that I’m not bothered by it as much I thought I would be.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. {}
Don’t get me wrong; my feelings might change if we are blessed with keeping this little one inside for a few more weeks. But for now, nine days in, this is where I find myself:
Grateful.
Extremely blessed.
Falling more in love with my husband daily.
More appreciative than I have ever been of my parents.
Thankful for prayerful friends and family.
In awe of our Creator whose hand is clearly on this little family.
Mr. Z and I look at each other virtually every night and cannot believe this is the situation we find ourselves in. But it isn’t a look of despair, more a look of surprise. I have had a healthy pregnancy and been blessed with good health for my entire life. So going into pre-term labor was a big surprise {although I have learned that 50 percent of all pre-term labor cases have no identifiable cause} and being hospitalized is not something that ever crossed my mind, nor my husband’s.
We continue to covet your prayers and ask that you would be praying for our little one to stay put, for strength for Mr. Z as he is in the middle of tax season, and continued grace for me as I adapt to our new normal.
Please also pray an extra blessing over my parents. They are here everyday with me keeping me company, running errands and providing an incredible support.
Truly, we are a very blessed family.
Flowers from my sis-in-law and her hubs. She texted me that
they were supposed to be yellow,
but perhaps the florist knows something we don't ;-)Read More
30 Weeks!!
To my sweet little one:
I’m so grateful to be able to write this post today. I really wasn’t expecting to tell you that we made it to 30 weeks! You are staying put right now and we are so thankful. I have been hopeful that we would make it to this milestone yet the reality in my mind was you would be here now. Your dad disagreed and really believed we’d make it to today at the minimum. {You will love your daddy, he’s taking such great care of us.}
When we headed back to Labor and Delivery on Saturday and my contractions increased in frequency and intensity I really thought we were going to meet you by Sunday at the latest. How silly of mommy to not consider that the prayer team at our wonderful church has been calling down heaven to keep you inside {not to mention all the other friends and family that are doing the same}.
So here we sit in the hospital where you will be born. You’ll learn that your momma is a pretty active lady so not quite the ideal candidate for mandatory bed rest. But I promise you this my little one, I will do anything I possibly can to keep you safe and inside for a s long as possible. But you must know that even more than what your daddy or I could ever do your Father in Heaven is doing for you. We are learning this in a much deeper and profound way through this experience. He is sustaining you and keeping you healthy and happy. You are an active little one with a strong heartbeat {just as I typed this I saw my tummy move from your little kicks} and He is the one that has made you that way.
Mome {one of your grandmas} bought you a little teddy bear yesterday for when you arrive. I wanted to be sure we had something for you while you stayed in the NICU. I have a feeling this will be one of many little presents for you ;-)
So your Mome and Pop are here keeping your momma company so daddy can go to work and not be too worried about us. Your Grandma and Grandpa Z came by the other afternoon and will be here this afternoon. They all love you so very much sweet one. You also have quite a large number of aunts and uncles who are praying for you and loving on you. Not to mention all of mommy and daddy’s friends. You are one loved little person I tell you :-)
When you were only weeks in my tummy I was struck with intense fears that our Heavenly Father was not going to allow me to be your momma. In that time He recalculated my view of Him and He shared with me His promises from Psalm 91. Well sweet one, He shared those promises with me again since we have been in the hospital. And they are for you, your daddy and me. You are our Father in Heaven’s child before you are ours and as your momma and daddy we are praying in that way.
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
This is Clyde. One of mommy's dearest friends brought him to keep me company.
He's been hiking in Wyoming and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
I think this is his most favorite adventure yet though.
These are the flowers that Mome and Pop sent us shortly after we were
admitted to the hospital.
I'm reading this gem of a book to understand things a little better before you arrive.
I'm really enjoying it actually. It feels a lot like the doctors are sitting right next to me gently and lovingly helping me understand some of what we will
experience when you arrive. Yet another way God is tangibly taking care of us sweet one.
This is the little bear that Mome bought you. For now he keeps me company :-)
And here you are sweet one. Safely in mommy's tummy.Read More
We Request Your Prayers
I sent this email to a bunch of our family members {and I apologize now to any I might have missed, my brain is a little foggy} and thought it best to share it here as well. We covet your prayers right now as we trust our faithful and loving God with our lives and our little Baby Z.
Hi Family :-)
I think many of you have heard already but Peter and I wanted to let you all know what’s going on with us and Baby Z and the detour we’ve had to take as we would appreciate all the prayers in the world right now. We were admitted to the hospital yesterday around noon as I was dilated 3 cm and having contractions. We spent the next 24 hours trying to subdue the contractions and prevent any more dilating.
I continued to dilate to 4 cm but praise God, they were able to keep me from dilating anymore and I am now officially stabilized. My doctors have determined that the best course of action is for me to remain in the hospital on bed rest until our little one arrives. There is no way to predict when the baby will come, we have to simply take each day at a time.
Thankfully, God has kept our little one happy and healthy. S/he is moving around quite a bit and has a super strong {and beautifully sounding} heartbeat. We just need my body to stop thinking it’s time for us to meet this little one face to face. I’m at 29 weeks and 2 days and we would like to be full term of course, but we’ll settle for 34/35 as that’s when the lungs are in best shape.
So we ask you all to please keep us in your prayers. As you may have already concluded, it is also tax season, not the ideal time for a child to be born to an accountant ;-) But truly, we are trusting God in all of this. We have such a peace and trust in His will and His perfect plan. We know He loves this baby even more than we do {thought I must admit it is quite hard for me to grasp that!} and will do what is best for us and for the little one inside of me.
Thank you for all your love and support. As you guys know, our faith brought us to the altar {after a bit of drama :-)} and as we have seen the power of prayer bring our lives together we know He will use prayer to bring us all through this.
Love you all!
Lindsey & Peter
Read More29 Weeks
I don’t know why it has taken this long, but nesting has finally kicked in. The nursery is on its way yet it is a lot more cluttered than I had planned. Therefore, the whole nesting thing has really come in handy to figure out the best way to organize, arrange and situate everything. We live in a two bedroom and really need the nursery to second as a guest room. This means getting creative. Like the dresser/changing table may need to go in the closet and the closet may just need to loose the french doors.
Enter Pinterest {LOVE this thing!} for creative closet arrangements. How’s this for some ideas:
Now to talk through these wonderful ideas I have with Mr. Z :-) This is what happens. Frequently. I brainstorm {or daydream} and come up with what I think is the best solution after I have run 1,000 different scenarios through my head, considered all the pros and cons and just assume Mr. Z will be on the same page as me as soon as I blurt out my well thought out idea. I tend to forget how long it took me to get to the final result ;-)
Interesting things from pregnancy this week:
- Baby has grown so much that it seems almost every movement is a BIG one :-)
- Maternity tops that used to seem really long aren’t so much anymore.
- We {Mr. Z} put the crib together this past weekend!
- I’ll post nursery pics once it’s done :-)
28 Weeks
The snow is falling outside our window, making spring seem so far off. Yet this week marks the official start of the third trimester. In 84 days the dead of winter will have disappeared, we’ll see spring on the trees and in the green of the grass, and we’ll welcome new life becoming a family of three :-) I can hardly believe it.
Interesting things from pregnancy this week:
- The nursery is coming along with these adorable pillows I bought for the daybed.
- Some of the gifts people have gotten us off of our registry have been coming and I pretty much cry with EVERYTHING that arrives ;-) {out of a healthy mix of hormones and pure joy}
- I noticed today that my once toned arms have lost their look. I’m already planning to where 3/4 length sleeves all summer {is that really vein of me. ha!}
