Our baby (Meriah Gale Williams) was born on Tuesday. She is at the Neonatal ICU at the University of Virginia. Things are not looking good for her. I am not able to post much info right now. For updates see www.nolessdays.org.


Here are a few more pictures

Lord, I'm having a hard time making sense of this life you've given me.
How do I sort out what's current and what's old? And how do I let go of what's simply old? My fear of the "end times" is very similar to my fear of labor--a large, looming pain that nothing can prepare me for. I know the outcome in both cases is beautiful, but I have a hard time focusing on this. Do I have enough info to be ready? Should I be reading more? Just as with my relationship with You, I tend to put off study and practice of labor. It's a fear avoidance tactic: what you don't know can't hurt you or you can't be accountable for something you don't understand. But this is glaringly counterproductive because with both I must go through with them, prepared or not. So why not be prepared? Is not opening myself to failure a sufficient substitute to a well-informed, thus possibly more peaceful, experience? With both events, we have spent so much precious time building towers of fear and dread while we could have been focusing on the beauty of the outcome, a baby and a Savior. Both pains have a purpose; they are not in vain. So how do I embrace this new perspective, God?

We just borrowed this from the library. It is definitely worth watching. Children are the future. http://www.promisesproject.org/

This is a touching look at how the conflict in the middle east is perceived by the children.

Just a little update. . . We moved into our new apartment last week.  We only have about two weeks until the baby is due, so really she could come anytime.  It is amazing how everything has fallen into place over the past few months.  God has provided us with exactly what we need exactly when we need it.  Here are just a few examples. 

When we didn't know where we were going to get $3000 to pay for a midwife we found out that we had some money in our retirement accounts from teaching.  Even after the financial crisis and taxes we ended up having, you guessed it, about $3000.

When we didn't know how we were going to find a summer job so we could rent an apartment before the baby is born. . . I got accepted to teach summer school.  This was great because I taught Geometry which is what I will be teaching next year.  It really helped to get me back in the teaching mode.  Also it was only from 11:30 to 4:30 four days a week.

When I was not looking forward to driving over an hour each day to get to summer school. . .  our frend in New Market (only about a half hour from the school) told us we could stay in her apartment while she was out of the country which was exactly the time I was to teach summer school (she didn't know this  at the time).

When we didn't know where we were going to live when our friend retuned to her apartment. . . we found an apartment that we liked with a landlord who was willing to hold it for us for a month until we could afford it and let us move in a week early also!

Now we are just waiting for the baby to come.  She is due the day after I start new teacher orientation.  The principal is great and is happy to work with us .  He even gave me three of the same Geometry classes so I would only have one prep this year with the new baby. 

Now if I could only get our second car running. . .