Introducing: Lily Maria Husband

September 28th started off a Wednesday like many others. I got up early with Elayne and Titus, helping them get ready for school. Our friend Marisol came over for the morning to play with Joel – getting him Spanish exposure while Amy and I worked. Amy was a bit tired, having had some Braxton-Hicks contractions the night before which were ongoing – but this was normal at 39 weeks, and we didn’t overthink it. Our other children had each been born between two to four days late, and Amy was still four days from her due date! So, as this still-‘normal’ Wednesday morning got rolling, I started editing a blog summary and Amy went upstairs to take a late morning nap. What followed next changed things… and quickly!

11:30 am – Amy texts me, she has had a fairly strong contraction while trying to rest. She thinks the baby is probably coming today.
11:50 am – Contractions have suddenly changed from being at least fifteen minutes apart to coming every two minutes.
12:00 pm – We call our doctor to let him know we are coming to the hospital, and make arrangements for Joel to get to the Van Wormers’ home.
12:16 pm – Having gotten together everything we need, we load it into the vehicle we’re borrowing and start driving.
12:27 pm – We pass through the parking gate at the hospital. Our doctor takes Amy up to the delivery floor in a wheelchair while I park, rush upstairs, and hurriedly put on scrubs.
12:43 pm – Our daughter is born! We named her Lily Maria Husband; she weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Born just one day before Joel’s second birthday, we figured our little Lily didn’t want her big brother to be two whole years older! All of our kids were incredibly excited to hear the news, and – after a routine night in the hospital for monitoring and recovery – we took great pleasure in introducing them to their baby sister. Each shows their love for her in distinct ways – Elayne singing to Lily when she cries, Titus quietly keeping her pacifer from falling while he holds her, and Joel suddenly running over to peer into her face with great interest while she sleeps on the couch!

Time continues its undaunted march forward, and suddenly we find ourselves celebrating two months with Lily in the big, outside world! (Note: the first version of this blog post was intended to be published the week Lily was born… but life with a newborn has been so much more exhausting than we remembered from the first three kids!) Having a family of six came quickly to feel like our new normal – even though the loss of sleep was pretty hard at first! We thank God for the gift of our precious Lily Maria, and look forward to sharing her with you when God next permits us to be together!

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Vehicle Search Update

Online and off, the hunt for a replacement vehicle – a mountain-worthy truck capable of serving us while we work among the Nahuatl – is proceeding well. God in His kindness has grown our available funds since last we wrote, and the need which remains is largely the cost to import and outfit a truck once purchased. The search itself has felt slow, with very few candidates coming to our attention so far. Yet there too God has been at work, growing the number of people helping us evaluate vehicles in places beyond our reach.

We’re still planning a trip to Las Moras in January, to make progress on various pre-construction tasks: gathering the completed adobes for our house’s construction, seeing that more continue being made, preparing to finish our foundation, and enabling our coworker Rachel to make progress on the Nahuatl Bible translation. It was a great blessing for me personally to return to the village in August, seeing it and the Nahuatl for the first time knowing we’d be back permanently so very soon… and now our family is excited to share the same privilege together!

Please pray for us as the time for this trip draws near. So much about this trip would be easier if our truck was available, and the remaining time seems short for a purchased vehicle to clear the importation progress before our departure. Yet as I wrote two months ago: God knows what truck we need, where it is, how to get it to us, and how to grow us more like Jesus as we wait on Him! This has not changed, and we are grateful for His continued faithfulness through every aspect of this process… not just the ones we consider most ideal.

For those interested in participating financially: thank you for thinking of us in this way, and please feel free to contact us with any logistical questions for that process which remain unanswered by our Give page.

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Praise God with us!

• For the safe arrival of our daughter Lily, and the continued good health that she and Amy have both enjoyed these past two months!
• We’ve had such incredible help since Lily’s birth – our moms’ visits were a great encouragement, and so many of our local friends have blessed us through their selfless service!
• Amy’s Mexican friends continue to comment on her improving Spanish, though her formal study is still on hold during this time of transition. I have also continued seeing encouraging progress, even when my study time is cut short by tiredness or helping meet extra needs around our home!

Ways you can pray:

• That, in His perfect timing, God provide the truck we need – and as well everything necessary for our upcoming trip to Las Moras (whether through a truck or some other means).
• Though things are greatly improved, we are still very tired! Please pray for strength, sleep, a good balance between family and ministry and general life… and that we can make the most of the hours God gives us each day to serve Him.
• Our coworkers remain scattered across North America – please pray for each! Katie (Florida) continues healing and hopes to return in January, Rachel (Las Moras) is working itinerantly on translation, Pete & Liesl (Wisconsin) are enjoying newborn daughter Cana, and Tom & Teresa (all over the US!) ask for wisdom regarding the timing of their own return to Mazatlan.