God has heard

with many of you we have shared about the prophecy over samuel,

but i'm going to tell it again anyhow for those who don't know.

a little over a year ago russ and i walked through the loss of a baby through miscarriage.

after about three months we were sitting in church before worship, and a man on our worship team looked over at us and said, "there is a boy on the way. he looks just like russell." he told me i had better get my running shoes on because i haven't seen anything yet. he could see him running in the grass. three days later i took a pregnancy test and confirmed what we already knew, that i was going to have a baby boy. we named him samuel joe. we liked the name samuel before the girls were born, and when we looked at the meaning of the name again, it means, "God has heard." He heard my hearts cry, and gave us a prophecy so that i need not fear losing him. God is so good. He shows me such great love even though i am so undeserving.

last saturday, october 2nd... i woke up early at 6 am having contractions. laid in bed an

hour with them coming every 3 to 5 minutes. decided since i was already 5 cm dilated before contractions i probably ought to get headed in the direction of going to the hospital. i got to give the girls big kisses on the way out and by the time we arrived at the hospital at 8 am my contractions were so hard i couldn't walk when i had one and was already having to do the heavy breathing. once i got hooked up to monitors we saw i was at a 7 and before long already an 8. the Lord knew i didn't want an epidural and made the decision for me because there wasn't enough time for me to get one anyhow. they broke my water and i was able to push shortly after. after a lot of pain and a lot of screaming, "get him out! please Jesus get him out!" and certainly scaring any poor pregnant women not yet in labor, here arrived at 9:58 am the most precious baby boy. so far it has been pure delight with one newborn that i can cuddle and enjoy. God has given this mothers heart the gift of twins, and now the joy of a much less strained time with this new little sweetheart.

his big sisters love him very much and are so gentle and kind with him.

not to say they are being the same way with each other or their mommy all the time, but the Lord is helping us all transition and continuing to teach me that i am showing them love by disciplining, even though it doesn't always feel that way.