Wednesday
9:00 pm – called the doctor
11:00pm – admitted to the hospital

Thursday
1:00  am – text my good friend Julie who was also being admitted that day to have her baby
8:00 am – met with doctor, she told me…”You’re having your baby today”
2:07 pm – deliverd Cole David Hargrave

It was a fast, scary miracle, but we are full of peace waiting for our son to come home.

Part of his lung was not quite developed, so they had to put him on oxogen for about 24 hours.  He had to be feed with an IV, and his heart was being monitored.  All of this sounds (and it looked) very scary, but we had great doctors who always gave us hope and comfort.  So, believe it or not, Ryan and I have had a lot of peace.  Not to mention the vast amout of friends and family who were praying fervently for us.

So, as of now we wait.  Wait for our little guy to come home.  He is being treated for Jaundice (almost gone) and has lost some weight, and he hasn’t quite got the knack for eating.  But, all of that seems to be getting better every day.  So, I go to the hospital about every three hours and hold him if I can, talk to him and tell him about all the things we are going to do.

Thanks again for all the love, it has been amazing and we feel it.

Christy

So, as I sit and feel this new little guy and think about doing it all over again, it gets me kinda scared.  Am I a good mom?  Should I be having children?  Am I going to have rebellious children.  And then, one day…out of nowhere, my son says to me,  “I love you mom, thanks for playing with me.”  And then I remembered the verse from Proverbs…”Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn form it.”  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I have been trying to control him, not train him.  I wasn’t giving him a reason to obey.  I was just expecting him to.

So, my lesson was easy.  Relax, keep doing what your doing.  And, tell myself what my parents always used to tell me:  That, discipline means freedom.

I’ll let you know how he turns out in 20 years.

In short… We went to steamboat for MusicFest, I’m now in the beardless part of the year, Christy is a redhead, Luke is 5, Crossbridge has moved into a building, it’s getting hot in Texas, we’re still traveling alot and have a river trip in our near future!

There… you’re all caught up. LOL

This year, as always I asked him if he would go with me to visit Santa?  Yes, he said.  Will you sit on his lap?  And to my surprise the answer was, “Yes”.  I was thrilled.

So, I throw on his best red shirt and jeans (because my child has no vests, thank you very much) and headed to the mall.

We arrived to the Santa Place and I began to see my little man getting a little apprehensive.  I got down on my knees and told him he didn’t have to do it if he didn’t want to.  I told him I just wanted a picture, but I understood if he just simply wanted to look at him.  I held his little chin in my hand and said, it’s just for me honey, but I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to.  He looked up at me and said, “OK mom, I won’t say anything to him, I will just take my picture for you.”

I’m so proud of my little guy!

And of course I had to reward my brave boy with the messiest cookie ever!

About a month ago Chrsty and I took a Saturday and went out and helped repaint a womens shelter down in Richmond. This was part of an effort of our local church, Crossbridge, to show the city.. the community… the people… that the church is part of more things than just looking at themselves. Every year, they shut down services and spend the weekend being the church to whoever needs help. This year it was a Saturday only, but included repainting a womens shelter, fixing several other buildings and structures for various non-profits and spending some time with the elderly at a local nursing home.

We had a great time getting out with others and really making a difference around where we live. Hopefully this targeted weekend reminds everyone that “Showing The Love” isn’t just a one weekend per year thing, but rather a constant day-to-day part of our lives. Here’s a video of some of the stuff that went on.

You definitely learn a lot about yourself when you have to rely on others.. and that is not something we do very well. But coming out of it we’re a better family and closer to our friends, and that is irreplaceable. So overall, things are going well… We have no pictures to post or report over the last few weeks as our battery charger was stolen a few weeks ago and we just got the new in the mail 2 days ago. Blah.

We have been fairly busy though. We made a trip down to Austin to see Mom, Terry and Debra for Mom’s birthday and the fact that we celebrated at a Ryan Bingham show was even cooler. It was nice to get away from the stress of no power and take in some family, friends and music. And we even met Uncle Rico at the festival (Damn you camera charger thief).

We spent the next week, after getting power restored, cleaning up the yard, doing housework and replacing groceries. Nothing too exciting. I took Luke with me on a trip to Mom’s house in Mexia and spent the weekend with her, doing some hunting and hanging with friends. Meanwhile Christy enjoyed the peace and quiet and a little Spa action I surprised her with.

Hope that catches everyone up on things with us. This weekend we’re staying at home and going out with our church to help paint houses, repair properties and just generally love on the community. Should be fun!

oops I lied… here’s video of all of us out last year showing the love. Luke is in there and I’m painting a house somewhere in there. Enjoy.