Joshi Will's B-Day

Today Joshi is 5!! He is very excited about this birthday.

This is a picture of Joshi five years ago today. He was our surprise baby. Joshi went a long way in strengthening my faith. Also, in teaching me that I was definitely not in control. That is still a hard lesson for me.

Shortly after Mike and I and the family moved to North Carolina things were tight financially. Mike hadn't found a paying secular job as easily as we had hoped and the church he was working for was able to pay a housing allowance, but that was it. So, naturally as we had no steady income and no insurance, I got pregnant. Those nine months were a weird time for me. I learned a lot about myself. A lot of things that were buried pretty deep. I think they made me a better person.

On Sunday July 7 th, 2002 I was sitting at home waiting for our small group to come over when the contractions started. Now I knew a couple of things, first I knew that I was strep B positive (which meant I could go to the hospital and as long as I was far enough along they had to keep me), that I was 6 centimeters a few days before (which was far enough along to have them keep me), and that with my three previous babies nothing had ever happened unless my water was broken. So I waited a couple of hours (with contractions every 5 minutes lasting about a minute, and smiling through them while there were people meeting in a small group at my house) and as soon as they left I called the midwife. She told me that since it was Sunday and she wasn't on call, and because of my history, if I went to the hospital they would give me a sleeping pill and tell me to lay down and wait till tomorrow. She suggested instead of me doing that, that I should stay home, take a glass of wine (REALLY?), or some Benedryll, and stay at home to sleep. For me drinking even one glass of wine while I was pregnant was really out of the question for so many reasons, but I did take the Benedryll and then continued having contractions all night long every five minutes in a half sleep half awake state.

So, by morning I was ready. We drove to the hospital and they, of course, admitted me seeing that i was now 7 cm (seriously, all night and one centimeter, ridiculous) and put me on the antibiotics for the strep. After the two doses of antibiotic, and one dose of epidural they broke my water and Joshi came about an hour later. Our midwife was awesome and let Mike deliver Joshi. It was a very cool moment. And so funny because after he was born I had nurse after nurse come to my room to meet the daddy who was so awesome and gentle in delivering his baby. Our Midwife was actually bragging about him!!! He was great!

But my biggest surprise by far was our little peanut!! I felt huge during this last pregnancy. I had only gained 25 pounds but they were all stomach. Even Mike said I was huge!!! So we really thought that since each of our babies had gotten bigger that he was going to be our hugest. When little 6 pound 5 ounce Joshi was born we were shocked!!! He was so little and cute, with his little furrowed brow. Gorgeous baby.

One of the fun things about Joshi's birth was that is occurred the day before Kylee's birthday!! She was so happy to have a new baby for her 4th birthday!!















And Five years later I could not imagine life with out our little Joshi Will. Joshi is a great kid!!! He loves doing school with his brother and sisters, playing with friends, swimming, riding his bike, helping his mommy cook, hanging out with his daddy, the list goes on he is just a really fun kid!! I thank God for him every day. I feel so blessed that God knew that I needed this little guy in my life.

Happy Birthday Joshi!!

Kristen