Judah Michael Coombs, "Let God be Praised!" Part 1

 As I sit to dust off the blog, I am absolutely amazed at the twists and turns our lives have taken since I last wrote...in DECEMBER! There is much we need to catch up on -- like leaving my full time job after seven years, Kenny switching jobs (and careers!) AND also pursuing his God-given calling and passion in youth ministry, becoming pregnant with, carrying, and having another precious baby boy -- just to name a few transitions. And believe me, each of these deserve a catch-up blog post because they are true testaments of God's sovereignty and absolute perfect timing. Seriously, some of the details of living out all of these transitions still absolutely blow me away. Bottom line - God is SO.GOOD! I do hope I can find some minutes here and there to spare to write down these awesome testaments of God's provision to give Him alone the praise, but for now, I share with you the birth story of Judah Michael Coombs, whose name appropriately means "Let God be praised!" And I couldn't think of anything more perfect for our precious boy...

So, I guess we should probably rewind a little bit to Judah's very beginnings... Most Mommas can probably relate when I say that my heart was aching to grow our family; however, life as a full-time-working-in-ministry Momma of a very busy toddler was overwhelming. We began seeking where God was calling us. As I was feeling more and more of a tug to focus on my family and role as wife and Momma, Kenny was simultaenously getting the very strong nudge of wanting to pursue youth ministry. I knew for him to work in a ministry role, I too could not work in a seperate church. We did not know what was ahead and quite frankly, financially it seemed like it would be impossible for me to step away from full-time work.  Plus the pure thought of leaving the church family we had served for 7 years (7 years of growing up - getting engaged, married, having Caleb...) was slightly unbearable. I can remember praying on my "thinking spot" as I rocked Caleb to sleep one night and tears streamed down my face. God was certainly up to something, working as only God can work.  A rare opportunity came up for a youth director position in a local church, and Kenny and I both felt like he/we should pursue it. One event led to the next and before we knew it, Kenny was offered the part-time position just after receiving a full-time position as a Graphic Designer, another passion and pure gift of his. While Kenny was excitedly stepping into his calling and gifts all at once after years of it seeming so "distant and impossible," I was having to deal with much ache as I began to share the news with my amazing ministry team and church family...but God had the perfect gift to me in the mix of all these transitions to confirm to my heart that we were indeed doing the right thing...

On the morning we had decided that I would share our news with the church staff who I was blessed to work with, I was feeling especially anxious and maybe even slightly nauseous... In fact, I had experienced a few of those moments where I said to myself, "I am either sick...or...pregnant." So that morning something urged me to take a pregnancy test even though I was convinced it'd be too early to get a positive anyways. I took the test, laid it down, and hopped into the shower fully expecting to see a "Not Pregnant" in the window of the test. Imagine my surprise when I jumped out, picked up the test, and saw "PREGNANT!" Seriously, there is nothing like that absolute awe when you first realize that there is indeed life inside. While my heart still ached of the news I would share hours later, there was a quiet peace that we indeed were walking the path that God had laid before us. I once read a book which I would highly recomend called "Just enough light for the step I'm on," and this indeed was the light I needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Because we had experienced pregnancy loss, I was slightly hesitant in sharing our news. While it was early, we decided to suprise our immediate families with the news at Christmas. My impossible-to-shop-for brother was the first to receive the news with this gift...

We were able to share with Kenny's family a few days later, yet not so creatively as Kenny just sort of slipped it randomly into conversation over the dinner table!

We waited to share with the rest of our family and friends until after we had that first, reassuring ultrasound, which was just so perfectly timed around the time of Caleb's 3rd "Go Diego Go" Birthday party. My aunt was the first to recognize the news on Caleb's birthday shirt...

To anyone who knows Kenny and I well...Kenny does not like big surprises like waiting until birth for the gender reveal BUT I on the other hand love me a good surprise! So this time, we met in the middle. It just so happened that we had our big gender revealing ultrasound just days before Easter, where our HUGE family would gather together to celebrate the Risen King! SO we decided that we would wait and find out the gender of our baby with our family and a special cake (if you know our family, you know we love our cake and sweets!).

(Caleb wanted a sister like his cousin Landon, but he's totally cool now with his baby bro!)

If you haven't quite caught the theme yet with Judah...God's timing was so.absolutely.perfect each step of the way...even when I had kidney stones (now that's a story in and of its own) during Judah's pregnancy.  Unfortunately the kidney stone episode coincided with our Canada family vacation.  As we were in and out of the hospital, we kept pushing our vacation back.  Finally, we decided we were just going to take the risk, pack the pain meds and medical records, and hit the road!  Sure enough, I passed the stone (after almost two weeks in and out of excrutiating pain) in the middle of that night when we were hoping to leave the next morning...true.story. While I certainly could have done without kidney stones, the relief and timing of it passing was perfect. And the reminders of what is truly important learned through enduring them were worth the pain.

my.little.boy.joy.

The in and out of the hospital adventure of the unknown during the kidney stone episode made this vacation all the sweeter and God blessed us with an incredible week!

SO towards the end of my pregnancy, I began to pray for God's perfect timing in Judah's arrival. Now while I did not think this could/should be a week late, God knew what he was doing. If you recall Caleb's birth story...I had a marathon labor that did not turn out as we had hoped and planned. In fact, it took me quite some time to come to grips with the way his arrival all went down. And the recovery was not easy at all. I tried hard not to replay Caleb's birth too much in my mind and instead trust that things could go different with Judah...and differently they did. "Let God be Praised"

As I waved hello and then quickly goodbye to my "due date," I headed into the doctor's office for a nonstress test to find out baby boy was perfectly healthy and thriving. The doc and I talked about options and he suggested we tentatively plan an induction over the weekend if the little man did not make a move before then. While I was not exactly keen on being induced, the midwife and another awesome doctor were covering the hospital that next weekend, so it seemed like a good choice since our practice shares hospital coverage with another practice.  As much as I wanted a natural labor without induction, I consented fully thinking that there was no way I wouldn't naturally go into labor before then. A few days passed and with each day, I felt less and less contractions as I began to wonder if he would ever make his debut! I had another NST and ultrasound later in the week for a fluid check and everything was still looking just as it should...so we continued to wait as I continue to pray my prayer of perfect timing. Each day that drew closer to "induction day," I began to feel a little bit more anxious. The night before we headed in to be induced, I was still feeling uneasy and kept wondering when he would actually decide to come on his own if I wasn't induced...

9 am Saturday morning came and I found myself checking in on the L&D floor of the hospital and much to my surprise, I saw the friendly face of our midwife! Don't get me wrong - we loved the other doctor who was actually scheduled to be there that day but had an especially good relationship with our midwife. If I could choose anyone to have delivered Judah, it would be our midwife!  She actually said "Surprise! There was a mix-up, I'm actually here today and not tomorrow!" Coincidence?  I think not... God's perfect timing?  I do believe so...  

Before I knew it, I was hooked up to the monitors for one last NST before the induction. At that point it was pretty quiet on the maternity floor (unlike it would be later that night!) and all the nurses were pretty jovial with us which put me at ease. However, they kept asking if I was feeling the contractions that were being measured on the monitor. I was and actually a little more consistently than I had been all week. After some time, the midwife came in to check on things and said I was contracting beautifully...to the point that she did not feel confident in giving me the gel to induce contractions. Because I was contracting on my own and the baby was still looking super healthy, she was afraid the gel could cause contractions to come too quick, too fast and the baby not respond well. She knew our desire to have a natural labor, so after checking me to find I was ONLY 1 cm. dilated, said "Hmmm...let me think about this" and left us for a few minutes...

She came back still sticking to her original thought...and after orders to go walk and stay active, I felt like I had just received a "break out of jail free card" and one last chance for this baby boy to come on his own as we were scheduled to come back in the next morning to see where we were at if nothing happened throughout the day/night. The midwife had sweeped my membranes as much as she could and told us to enjoy the beautiful day together...perfect.timing. And so we took her orders literally...and headed first for two laps around City Island where we got quite a few "looks" and even a number of questions from passerbys.

I swear I didn't shove a ball or watermelon under my shirt but I can't tell you how many times I was asked this by total and complete strangers.

The midwife also suggested a stop for coffee (have I mentioned how much I love her?!)...

After one more stop at a busy Target store to pick up a few last minute "nesting" items, we headed home to pick up Caleb from my parent's house.  While there, I tried to "stay active" as I walked up and down the stairs a few times, threw in a few lunges, etc.  Contractions continued but didn't really strengthen or come more frequently.  The minute they started to slow down, I quickly jumped into action to try to keep them coming!

After a few hours at home, my Mom came up to our house for some final cleaning/organizing and as the sun began to set on yet another day that our baby boy still had not arrived, I convinced Kenny and Caleb to go on one more walk before it was dark.  My full of energy Caleb decided he'd ride bike while we walked our 120 lb horse of a dog, so my choices were to a)chase Caleb to keep him safe as he is always full speed ahead or b)wrestle walk our 120 lb dog.  I am not sure who to thank for putting me into labor...Caleb or the dog?...but that last walk seemed to do the trick.  When we got back home, I remember looking at Kenny exhausted and saying, "I sure hope I don't go into labor now...because I am SO tired."

1 hour later...