PRAYER REQUEST!!! / First Bath (in the house)

please keep our friends in your prayers. today we were told that one of our friends is having the first signs of a miscarriage. she is about 5 weeks along. the doctor told her that she has to sacks in her womb. one of them is empty and the other has a small fetus in it. so as we all know our God is big enough and more then capable to heal those little babies in her womb. now to add to the prayer request this ladies husband just left for a 6 month deployment. she has two other boys (one 11, and the other 2 1/2). so with the pain and hurting emotions of her husband leaving and having to become a single mother (even if it is for a sort time) isnt enough she is having to go through this as well.... so please with you think of me and my family remember them too.

now for the update for our day.... today Chantal and I thought it was finally time to give Ian his first bath. he wasnt really stinky, but it was just time to give him a bath. plus we needed to clean his little "peeter" after his circumcision. all things went well, or at least we thought it did. he didnt poop or pee on us and he came out of the ordeal better then he went into it. after we bathed him i didnt get to see him all afternoon, because Chantal took him and snuggled him. she loves the feeling and the smell of a freshly bathed baby. all i can really say is this little man is so dang cute. i love him and i love the adventure that we are already having with him.

God is Good!!! Paperwork almost done

God is so good!!! for several days now i have been running around like crazy trying to get all or Ian's paperwork done. it hasnt been as hard as i thought that it would be. that is because God has had His hand in it all. the other day when i went in to make the passport appt. they told me that the soonest they could get me in was 27 sept. now that day would have worked but just would not have cut it for time. after i came home and told Chantal about it we came up with a plan. we decided that i would go in to the passport office and check to see if they has any cancellations. well i went in there yesterday (after finishing all other paperwork) and sure enough they had an opening. they told me that we could come in today at 1000. so we got all of out paperwork together and went in. things at the passport office when exceptionally well. we were in there a total of 30 minutes and our package was sent off. this is a huge praise the Lord. as seeing that Ian is only a week old and he has a passport on the way. he also was able to get circumcised. which is another huge blessing. seeing that he must have this done within 14 days of life. though that may not seem like a hard thing to some people it is not that easy here at Ramstein. it is not uncommon for someone to be sick (and i mean really sick) and call in to bee seen only to be told that the soonest appt available is two weeks out. so when Ian was able to be seen so soon it is of no doubt that God has been working everything out for us.

as for the rest of the family all is well. the dogs are still doing great. Abby (the white one) loves Ian. she thinks that he is her baby. when he cries she goes to check on him. when we lay him down she comes and lays her head on him to love him. as for Lexy (the black one) she doesnt really care either way. she is more worried about us touching her then anything else.

Home again Home again

yesterday Chantal & Ian were released from the hospital. we had to do a little bit of running around before we made it home. once we finally got through the doors of our house it felt like a 100 lb were off our shoulders. though with all this relief it seemed like we didnt have enough time to get settled in before it was bed time. before we knew it the time had slipped to 2130 and Ian still had not been put to bed. well i think that this was a mistake on our part. because it took me several hours before he finally went to sleep good. that lasted about 45 minutes before he was up again. this kind of thing went on all night long. no worries though we all got to sleep a little bit. then (as i am sure all babies do) as the son came up Ian thought it would be a great idea to go right to sleep.... :-)... i guess that this kind of thing is what i have to look forward to.... and so far i am loving every minute of it!

Photo by: Kimberly Cotta Photography (you can find her of facebook)

once i got my sleepy butt out of bed i was off to take care of our overwhelming paper work. as i was on my way and had a semi grip on what i needed to do things started going pretty well. when i got to every place that i needed to be the people were really helpful and made it really clear as to what i needed to do next. (this is a HUGE deal when your stationed here at Ramstein AB). by the time i got home i had almost completed everything that can be done with exception of the Passport. speaking of the Passport please keep praying about that. they told me that the soonest they could get us in was 27 Sept 10. that is just to far out for us to get everything sent off and for everything to come back. we have to have Ian's Passport before Nov because we are leaving for South Africa to see Oupa and Ouma Coetzee. so please keep this paperwork issue in your prayers.

Photo by: Kimberly Cotta Photography (you can find her of facebook)

now that i have my whole family (Chantal, Ian, and the two girls) in the house it feels good. i feel that this "family" man thing is what i was made for. i am loving every minute of this. i cant thank God enough for giving me a wonderful family that is perfectly healthy. i know that what He has given me is a blessing and that things could be much, much worse. so again i thank God for all that He has done for me and has given me.

Ian's First Cries/Our Daily Up Date

here is a small clip of Ian while he is being checked out by the Midwife just minutes after being born. you can here me clicking away with the camera... lol.....

as for today here is a small update on what happened. Ian had his a hip scan done. everything came back just fine.... he is started to stay awake a little bit longer. and my a little bit longer i mean like 5 minutes at a time. now i am sure that all of this will change and i will wish he would just stay asleep, but right now i just want to see my son awake doing cool things. i dont know what cool things would look like, but i would like to see them..... as for Chantal. she is doing good. she told me today that she is feeling great. that she is not hurting at all. although we went on a walk and about 30 minutes afterward her back started to hurt. i think we over did it on our walk. other then that she is doing great. she is healing very well. she is so ready to come home. her room mate has a baby boy that has a set of lungs on him. she says that he cries so loud and all the time. when he cries the other lady doesnt take him out of the room to settle him down. this isnt a problem until its time for bed and Chantal and Ian cant get any sleep because this other kid is screening like crazy. as for me. well i am doing good. it hasnt really sunk in just yet. but give it some time and i am sure that i will feel like a dad. although i am starting to feel like i wont hurt him while i hold him or try and pick him up to hold him. i think that change started to take place this afternoon while i took a nap with Ian. after i fed him (and burped him) i laid him on my chest and ended up falling asleep. which was amazing by the way. i have a feeling that this will become a habit :-). but here is what i know for sure. my love for this little man is growing more and more by the minute. i didnt know that i could love a person this much. i am so thankful that God has found me (of all people) worthy to watch over this wonderful little boy.

tomorrow will come our first taste of how things will be for a while. the pediatrician will be coming to the hospital around 0730 - 0800 to check all the babies out. once he is done they said that we will be allowed to come home. which in our eyes is a good thing. (though the midwives have been great. i know that we will miss them). so i am sure that tomorrow night when he is all ours and we have to do everything ourselves our song will changes a bit... lol....

well stay tuned for more updates. again while you think of me and my family remember our friend that found out their 3 year old boy has Leukemia and keep them in your prayer. so please pray for them before you mention me and my family. because everything is ok with us but things on there end is still a roller-coaster.

Ian Keith Cook

my son was born yesterday (10 Sept 2010) at 12:55pm. he weighed 9.3lb (4220grams), he was 22.8in (57cm) long, his head circumference was 14.7in (37cm).

now that the stats are out of the way let me briefly tell the story. our day started out at 0130 when Chantal woke me up and said "honey.... i think i am in labor..." so i replied "well how bad are the contractions?" she said "i dont know... my back just is starting to hurt!!!!" i then said "huuuu" and when to sleep. well that didnt last to long before she woke me up again :-).... and this time i knew for sure it was real! we got our things together and headed off to the hospital. we knocked on the door of labor and delivery. when the midwife oped she just looked at us and said "oookkk come on in." (we were standing there with bags and excited faces. i think she just knew.) once she let us in she took us to the back room, because all of the normal rooms were full. of course we would have to pick the day when they didnt have any room for us :-)... so we were there for about 5 minutes the Chantal thought her water broke so i went and found the midwife to tell her. she came on back and examined Chantal and told her that she was 4 cm dilated. about two hrs passed when they checked her cervix again this time she was at an 8. great news for her... things were moving right along. we soon moved into the bath where Chantal dilated to 10. we moved into the birthing room (by now things had cleared out). it wasnt to much longer before Chantal gave birth to our beautiful boy. her total labor time was around 11 1/2 hrs. my wife is a real trooper she did the WHOLE THING WITHOUT DRUGS!!!! man there is no way i could have done that! i am really proud of her for doing just what she wanted to do (deliver the baby all naturally).

once the baby came out i got to see the miracle God talks about in Genies. when He talks about breathing the breath of life into Adam and Eve. when Ian first came out he was a grayish blue, and in an instant he took his first breath and came to life. he started to turn pink; and started to move. it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen!

i could write about this day forever. but i will restrain myself. (seeing as it is late and i am getting sleepy)..... so it is here that i will count my blessings: i thank God that he has given me a beautiful wife that had a healthy pregnancy, followed by a HUGE beautiful baby boy that is 100% healthy. I serve a wonderful God who has been the best Father to me, and i pray that i could come within 1% of His of what He has done for me..... thank you Jesus!

My newest joy; my son Ian

So yesterday my 1st son was born at 12:55. ( I'll write about all the things that went on that day later). But today when I woke up this unspeakable joy came over me. There is no way that I could ever really explain how I felt, but those of you that have kids know just what i am talking about. When I finally got to the hospital and got to see Ian again my heart almost could keep from melting. He is so beautiful. So what this comes down to is this: I am so thankful that our Father has given me a wonderfully beautiful baby boy.

We Were the Joy That Was Set Before Him

Image via Wikipedia

i wrote a little bit about this in my other blog, but i did not go into detail. and i am sure that i do not have everything that God wants to give me on this subject. either way here is what God has been showing me about me (us the Body of Christ).

Heb 12:2
"looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

i have this worship album by Klaus "Glory." which i think everyone should listen to and worship with. anyway the song that spurred me to think about all of this is called "You Are The Joy." it starts out singing that we were the joy that was set before Him on the cross. then it leads into singing that He is the joy that is set before us. it took me several days of thinking about this to even grasp the idea. but here is the truth in all of this. God set us before Jesus which gave Him the strength to endure His cross, and likewise God has given us Jesus so that we would have the strength to endure our cross (and or calling). 

John 15:11
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

Jesus before this was talking about abiding in love which means we are abiding in Him. then He out of the blue (or what would seem like the blue) tell us us that He wants us to have His joy and that He wants it to be full. then He leads right into talking about laying ones life down for his friends. then He calls those who follow His commandment of "loving your brother " friends. we all know that He was talking about His death on the cross here. and that he wanted to lay His life down for us. for me it is a no-brainer what He is talking about. when i (we) abide in the love that He commanded us to do we build a deep intimate relationship with God. and through this when we are carrying our cross (calling) and the world (with all the demons in it) starts to brake us down; here is what should give you strength to carry on: Jesus! He is and should be the joy that is set before us. with Him as our focal point nothing else should matter.

so when we look back at Heb 12:2 and we see that we were the joy that was set before Him, and that we (in all of our imperfections) gave Him joy to endure His cross (calling). this should be the perfect example for us to follow. we should set Jesus in front of us so that we may have the strength to endure our cross (calling).    

Simple Truths #4

Image by Grace to You via Flickr

If you Hate your "brother" then You Do NOT Love God!

In 1 John 4:20-21 it says this "20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also." 

so the questions is this: where is your heart? are you being obedient to Gods word? are you loving as He already commanded us to love? 

i know this is short but God put this on my heart to share. so the Simple Truth for today is to love our brethren as Christ already instructed us to do. for by doing so we are walking in the Love of God.

Leukemia Prayer Request

Image via Wikipedia

i have been going way to fast for way to long. for what seems like weeks i have been doing military things. this last weekend i played in the ORE. i wrote about this the last time i had to play. and this time is no different. i dont like playing in them. they seem to go on forever and they seem to take away all my time.... so ORE's are defiantly a no go! but this is not what i want to write about today. about two days after our ORE my friend took his little boy to the hospital to get checked out. because the little boy has been acting different sense they moved here (about two months ago). well what they thought was going to be a simple doctors visit turned out to be a life changing event. the family found out that their 3 year old boy has Leukemia. if that is not bad enough let me add to the list. the little boy and his mom are being shipped out the States as soon as they can get him out. then his dad and little brother will follow. now that the boy has Leukemia the whole family has to move back to the states. which is no easy task. see when the Air Force moves (PCS) you over seas there is a lot that goes with that. they have to sell their car, take all the FMO stuff back, ship there other car out, etc. they have to pick up there whole lives (just as they were getting settled in) and move again. this is hard enough when one just finds out that their kid has Leukemia, but when you have a wife (that is 26 weeks pregnant) a 17 month old baby, and dog it seems to be that much more difficult.

so during your prayer time tonight please lift up my friends. out of respect for them i will not give out their names, but God knows just who you will be praying for. i mean He is the one who made them anyway.