I'm a fourth year seminary student attempting to balance life, youth ministry, and academics along with preparing to have a child. This is about being in the world but not of the world. I'll talk about everything from the Word of God, my wife, recent books, the Red Sox, Lost, my ministry, interesting insights into our culture, and anything else that runs across my plate.
Yesterday marked the six week mark until Micah's due date! We're having our last baby shower this Sunday and after that we'll get BabyPrep2007 into high gear. Things have been going really well and we're learning so much at our birthing class. It is just amazing how knowledge is power and how much most women don't know going into the birthing process. Thankfully, we're in a great class and feel like we both know all the options on the table and what they mean.
Since we have a one bedroom apartment right now, space is at a premium. Thanks to Ikea, we bought a smaller version of our dresser and it will also serve as a changing table. It has a thing on top that goes across the back and on the sides. We'll buy a changing pad and 'viola!' you have a dresser/changing table. and its at the perfect height. So here's a pic of me assembling it last night. With all of the furniture that I've put together, I could go into business assembling Ikea furniture. This makes 2 dressers, 2 nightstands, one book case, one desk, one coffee table, one bed, and one microwave table.
A lot of you have been asking for another 'prego-pic'. Here we are at 34 weeks.
HOLY COW!!!! In case you didn't catch it, here she was in August. And this is the exact same type of shirt that we took the latest one in. She couldn't find the exact same shirt, but she had it in a few different colors.
This past week, Leah and I went to our first birthing class. It was the first one about what to do until the classes start on a weekly basis. One thing that struck me throughout the class was the absence of any reference to God. There were so many times where I thought the obvious comment would be that this was always perfectly designed by God. The lady talked through the birthing process and about how the body knows exactly what to do. She kept being amazed at how the body does the right thing at the right time without you telling it to do it.
I was just sitting there being amazed at how someone could look at all of this and think that it is just a product of time and chance. The human body is so intricate and detailed that it demands the question of who the designer is. God's eternal power and divine nature is made manifest even in our own bodies.
This is the first of many cousins pictures where one of them is on 'the outside'. Now I realize that the parent of this 'runt' is already talking smack about how he will be able to beat up our child, as if size has anything to do with it. What she doesn't know is that our child will be raised watching a loop of Rocky V and will have the mentality of Rocky to Liam's 'Ivan Drago'. Where Micah lacks in size and brawn he will thrive in speed, focus, and wits. While he may not have the size, he will be crawling circles around a clumsy and stumbling Niam.
And as is already clearly evident, Micah is able to lure Niam in, let him relax and lower his guard. Micah will be like a sting ray that buries itself below a small amount of dirt, waiting for some unknowing prey to be lured in and then... BAM! he'll strike and gain the upperhand. What Niam doesn't realize is that Micah is doing this even now. And yes, he could reach out through the porthole that is the belly button and exact his dominance upon lesser prey, but alas it is not his time to reveal such skills and abilities for such domination.
We had our ultrasound this morning, and our baby is very much a boy! Here are some videos of the ultrasound for your enjoyment. The tentative name is Micah Owen Costine.
Micah: Obviously the author of the book of Micah. Within his book he prophecies the coming of "One" in Bethlehem and Micah 6:8 tells us "What is it that the Lord requires: to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."
His name means "Who is like the Lord?" and relays a meaning of uniqueness.
Owen: After John Owen. I credit John Owen with opening me to the world of really good books. I read his "On Sin and the Mortification of Sin in Believers" and "On Temptation" and I was enthralled. They were really the first two old books that I read and I loved them. I like the idea of using a middle name to pay tribute to someone in history or family and relating the child to history. Its also where you can use a name that you like, but don't want to use on a first name.
From JohnOwen.org: John Owen was by common consent the weightiest Puritan theologian, and many would bracket him with Jonathan Edwards as one of the greatest Reformed theologians of all time. Born in 1616, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and secured his M.A. in 1635, when he was nineteen. In his early twenties, conviction of sin threw him into such turmoil that for three months he could scarcely utter a coherent word on anything; but slowly he learned to trust Christ, and so found peace. In 1637 he became a pastor; in the 1640s he was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and in 1651 he was made Dean of Christ Church, Oxford's largest college. In 1652 he was given the additional post of Vice-Chancellor of the University, which he then reorganized with conspicuous success. After 1660 he led the Independents through the bitter years of persecution till his death in 1683.
Yesterday Leah and I went to the doctor for another check up. We were prepared that we still may not see a heartbeat. If that was the case then we wouldn't be able to check again until after we got back from camps. That would not have been the preferred way. But we saw the heartbeat and our little bitty baby forming. It has been amazing to see the growth from week to week. It isn't very common that someone should get to see their baby three times in three weeks. It has been amazing to see the continuing transformation and the sac growing.
The next week and a half we'll be at summer camps. We have our jr high camp this next weekend and then the following week we'll be at Hume Lake. Thankfully, we have our own places to stay while we're there and she'll be able to get plenty of rest. It should be a relaxing time, and we pray that her sickness doesn't strike too badly. I think her biggest fear is not having the things she needs to make her feel better since she craves odd things at odd times. The doctor also said taht the elevation would be taxing and make her more tired. That would make her very tired since she has already been pretty tired.
I'll probably put one more post tomorrow before we leave.
Well, this pregnancy thing hasn't gone according to the plans that I would have had. On Monday Leah and I went to get an ultrasound and we were expecting to see the baby's heartbeat. We didn't see a heartbeat. There was definitely growth in the baby since the last ultrasound 11 days before, since we couldn't see anything at all then. But we thought that with where we were there would have been a heartbeat to see.
The doctor said that this would definitely be normal for Leah, but there are still those doubts. This process has been a reminder that we have no control over what is happening in the womb. We can obviously do everything we can to give it the nutrients it needs. Psalm 139:13-14 says "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my sould knows it very well."
We have been learning to not let worry consume us, while still realizing the fact that anything could happen. We are trying to focus on the positives that we know. We know the baby had grown. We know there is no bleeding. We know that the doctor didn't send us for a blood test. We also know that Romans 8:28 says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
I'm sure that everything that I'm going to be saying here is pretty much exactly what everyone else has said in the past. But I'm sure that someone wants to hear about it anyways.
Right now we're discovering all of the wonders of the first months of pregnancy. We’ve gone out and bought some maternity clothes. We got a pair of pants and she’s much more comfortable in them. We’ll be sure to post a picture of her in her new clothes. She’s very excited about them.
She’s finding it difficult to sleep at night because she wakes up hungry so often. During the day she’s able to nibble, but at night it gets to the point where its so bad she’ll wake up. Last night she made sure that she ate something with a little protein so it would last longer. She’s going to try to eat more high carb stuff before she goes to sleep.
The heat has been absolutely oppressive. We moved the mattress into the living room where there is AC. I can’t wait until we get the electric bill. We’ll be gone for a week and a half at camps, so that should help. The heat has been so bad here because its been humid too. People left and right are losing power, but thankfully we haven’t had to do that yet. I don’t want to be around when that happens.
We’re scheduled to have another ultrasound on Monday, so we’ll be sure to have an update after that.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Here's a picture of the progress so far. You can see that she's showing just a little. More updates to come...
If you want to check out my son's blog, email me at tcostine@sgucandcs.org. I'll send you the link. Please go ahead and bookmark it, but please don't link it from a website. thanks!
