Truly Blessed

Tomorrow our precious new son will be 3 weeks old. It is truly stunning how fast time goes by.

My induction with him went very smoothly. So smoothly in fact that I was able to catch up on a favorite show of mine that happened to be running a marathon that day, read a couple magazines, keep friends and family updated on Facebook and through texting and even snooze a bit here and there (after the epidural of course).

I have been blessed with quick deliveries in the past and this one was no different. I progressed from 5 to 10 cm in one hour and had him pushed out completely in about 5 pushes. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, his shoulders were stuck and he was a BIG boy, but I got him out quickly nonetheless. He came out so fast in fact, that his poor face was pretty badly bruised and he had hematoma in both of his eyes. Needless to say, we won't be showing off a vast array of hospital pictures.

So, on July 29th at 4:48pm, weighing 9 pounds and measuring 22 inches, Jaxon Glenn Ford was born.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we choose his name not just because we liked the sound of it, but because of its meaning. Over the last year or so we have gone through some really trying times, the greatest of which was Mark getting unfairly pushed out of the company he envisioned, built and greatly sacrificed for. The greatest sting was that it was at the hands of a friend and a family member. Being unemployed in this economy is tough, but many days that didn't compare to the emotional roller coaster that resulted from the broken relationships. We definitely went through a period of questioning why all of this was happening to us, but then God began to make it clear that He would bring beauty from the ashes and He had a good and perfect purpose in Mark's removal from the company.

When we found out that we were pregnant with our third child we knew that though the timing would present challenges, this baby would be a tremendous blessing in our lives. He was a bright spot in some really dark days and as we began to talk about names, we decided that we wanted to give him a name that would have significance based on what we were going through. Our focus had changed by then and we were constantly looking for all of the good things that our trials were bringing us. It seems odd to say considering the circumstances, but the blessings have far outweighed the difficulties and as I said, we know beyond a doubt that God is doing amazing and beautiful things in our lives through this. We looked at name meanings for days and never really found anything that had the right combination of meaning and a name we could live with. Finally one night I went back to the list of names we had made when we were pregnant with Mia to see if any of those boy names would work. Jaxon had been high on my list of names I liked and we had chosen to spell it that way because Mark wasn't a fan of the nickname Jack, but did like the nickname Jax. Oddly we had never even looked up what that name meant, until we went back to the list this time. I could hardly believe my eyes when the search results came up. I knew immediately that Jaxon would be his name. It was perfect!

Jaxon means, "God has been gracious. He has shown favor."

It so encapsulated how we had begun to feel about our circumstances. God was daily revealing a new plan for our lives and though the difficulties were many, we constantly did and do feel blessed to be right where we are.

As far as his middle name, we chose the name Glenn after Mark's dad. He is a man of great integrity and honoring him gives us tremendous joy.

Jaxon is such a good baby and we are all loving on him on a daily basis. Both Austin and Mia have adjusted better than we even expected. So far there are no signs of jealousy, only love.

And boy do we love our little Jaxon!!!

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10