Josiah got mail...from the White House

So, in our mail today we received this envelope addressed to "Josiah D. Audi." The return address said, "The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500."

Inside was this letter to Josiah:

In case you can't read it well, it says,

"Welcome! We are delighted to join your family in celebrating your arrival. You have already brought much happiness to those around you, and you've just gotten started!

We are glad you are now part of the wonderful American story. Our Nation holds great opportunities for you. May you make the most of your unique gifts, and may happiness and love surround you always."

President George Bush's and First Lady Laura Bush's signatures were stamped at the bottom. What a cool souvenir for Josiah's scrapbook.

I called my sister to see if Brannon had received a letter from President Bush when he was born, but he didn't. Daniel and I are wondering if he only sends it to babies born in his home state of Texas. Nonetheless, we were honored to have our son's birth recognized by the President! So cool!

"what happened to us?" - volume one.

Well, it's 8:45 p.m. and...we're ready to go to bed.

What happened to us?!?!?!

Oh, we're now parents who get up twice in the night with a hungry little boy! The joys of being 'mommy' and 'daddy'!!

a couple of 'firsts'...

JOSIAH'S FIRST WEEK WITH "GRAN-GRAN"

My mom and dad came Friday, November 7th, when my contractions started being regular, and they got to be here for Josiah's birth on the 8th! Mom stayed with us all week and was such a sweet servant to our new family - she cooked so many meals and things to freeze for us. She went to the grocery store and ran other errands, she rocked Josiah to sleep so I could get some rest, she treated me to an outing at Old Navy, she helped us clean the house, she videoed Josiah's arrival home and first bath. She was a great blessing to us. Thank you, Mama! And, Daddy, thank you for making 2 trips 2 weekends in a row to Fort Worth - to meet your newest grandchild and to see him again and come get Mama to take her back to Ruston. Daniel and I are very thankful for you and we love you! ...and, Josiah loves you too!!

JOSIAH'S FIRST VISITORS IN HIS NEW HOME

Rebecca and I have been friends for a few years and she has been my faithful workout buddy throughout my pregnancy. We worked out together 2-3 times per week since right before we got pregnant. She and her daughter, Caroline, came to meet Josiah the day we came home from the hospital. Caroline will have a baby brother or sister at her house in April which means Josiah will have another little friend to play with! Thanks, Rebecca and Caroline, for coming to meet Josiah!! You are special friends to us.

JOSIAH'S FIRST OUTING

5 days after Josiah was born, he went on his first outing - he came with us to our small group! We stayed a couple of hours for "oooooo-ing"' and "aaahhh-ing" time over him and then for a really sweet time of worship. Some in the group prayed over him and Nikki spoke words of life and truth into him, declaring that he has been marked by the Lord through the unmistakable fire in his red hair and declaring that he will be a man of God who will walk in the rich anointing of his daddy, Daniel, as Elisha walked in the double anointing of his father, Elijah. It was a really holy time together. Josh, Elizabeth, Caleb, Michelle, Craig, Nikki, and Brendon...we are truly blessed to walk with you through this season of our lives. And we pray the Lord will allow this to be a long season in our lives - we are richly blessed by your friendship. And we're so glad Josiah is now being covered by that blessing as well!

JOSIAH'S FIRST PARTY

Josiah turned one week old on November 15 at 2:53 p.m. so....we celebrated! Daddy had driven in town that morning and we all blew up balloons and sang, "Happy one week to you..." to Josiah. (For those of you concerned that we have balloons in the bed with our son, thinking it's a safety hazard, don't worry, he was never left alone in the crib. We just thought he needed 7 balloons for his 7 days of life. And, you must admit, it makes for terribly cute pictures!)

pictures.pictures.pictures.

Isn't he precious??? We're absolutely smitten...

The Unveiling...

After 9 months of anticipation, the Lord unveiled His miracle to us this weekend! And, after a few months of anticipating our son's name, we will now unveil "Baba Ganoush/Tommy Chuck's" official name to you!

Drum roll please......

Announcing the arrival of

Josiah Daniel Audi.

After a 19 hour delivery that started at 7:30 p.m. on Friday the 7th of November, Josiah was born on Saturday, November 8 at 2:53 p.m. He weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 20 inches long. Mommy, Daddy, and Josiah are all doing fine – a little tired, but fine! God’s hand was all over this pregnancy and delivery and post-delivery. We are truly grateful and so incredibly blessed. We are humbled that the Lord has entrusted us with this little life – can’t tell you the number of tears of joy I’ve already cried just looking at him and holding him near. A miracle, indeed!!

“Josiah” means “fire of the Lord” and…what a sweet reminder the Lord has given us of His “FIRE” in Josiah – he was born with flaming bright red hair. Our prayer is that Josiah would live to be his name sake – that he would possess the all-consuming fire of the Lord and that his life would burn for Jesus. (You can read about King Josiah in 2 Kings chapters 22-23. Here are a couple of verses about him that we really love! 2 Kings 22:2 “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” And 2 Kings 23:25 “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” We pray that our son would be known as a man who turns to the Lord like King Josiah of the past - with all his heart, soul, and strength.

out of town guests.

Well, it's 2 days past the little one's due date and we're still playing the waiting game - no consistent contractions or anything. The midwives have scheduled me to be induced on Wednesday night, November 12, with cervidil and will start pitocin Thursday morning, November 13, if the cervidil doesn't put me into labor. However, I'm hoping that neither of those things are necessary and that the little one will wiggle and squirm and send me into natural labor before having to be induced.

I know God has a perfect plan. Well, I know that in my head, and I'm trying to believe that in my heart. Sometimes it's hard to do that when I feel frustrated and just want to see his little face and hold him and know everything is okay.

In the meantime, I thought I'd blog! :-)

We've been blessed by some out-of-town visitors over the past month.

Andy and Laura came down for the TX-OU weekend and stayed with us after the game. Andy was Daniel's roommate when Daniel first moved to DFW from Maryland over 5 years ago! Now Andy lives in Oklahoma City. We had a fun night of being lazy on the couch, watching "Planet Earth," and eating quesadillas!

Us, Laura, & Andy after a yummy Sunday morning breakfast at IHOP!

Ryan and Adriane are also from OKC and came to DFW to celebrate their 4 year anniversary. And, even chose to have dinner with us on their anniversary weekend. We're always so blessed by them and their love for Jesus and just good conversation.

Ryan, Adriane, and us after a HUGE meal at Joe T. Garcia's.

Chris, Zahra, Brendon, and Zoey were driving through Fort Worth from Ohio...on their way to the Austin area. Chris and Daniel have been friends since high school. They stopped by for just an hour or two yesterday for a little road trip break. We haven't seen them since our wedding, over 2 years ago. It was good to catch up!

Us, Zahra holding Zoey, and Chris holding Brendon.

Elections 2008

I was encouraged to watch these today and I hope you will too.

www.neverfindout.org

us...when we were babies.

Well, as I sit here twiddling my thumbs waiting for our little one to decide to make his debut, I'm feeling pretty bored - his room is ready, all the errands have been run, I've even frozen some soup for us to have available after his arrival. I play Tetris on the computer and check Facebook regularly these days. It's all getting a bit old! :-)

Although our official due date isn't until Monday, I've been hoping all week that he would come a little early. To our dismay, he's still not wanting to reveal his little face. I feel like there's absolutely NO MORE ROOM for him in my belly, though. My skin feels so tight and when I wake up in the mornings, it is hard as a rock! I'm feeling sorry for his cramped environment.

My boredom has brought me to this post today. What to post? Nothing better than a preview of what's to come - a mixture of these two photos!! Wonder who he will look like? My theory is that first born children almost always look like the father, so...I'm thinking our little Baba Ganoush/Tommy Chuck will look more like an Audi than a Hood. But, we'll see!














baby Daniel James Audi & baby Kimberly Ann Hood

Daniel and I went for a walk this morning and have plans to go walking every day until the big arrival with hopes that it will encourage him to come! I've posted 'still waiting for our son's arrival. Pray with us for a weekend delivery,' on my Facebook, and have already had a couple of comments about others' success stories in speeding up the arrival of their little one. It's always so fun to hear what has 'worked' for some. One of our friends said, "Just go eat a big meal at Cracker Barrel - it worked for us!" I mean, what's the harm in trying??? And, who wouldn't want to eat at Cracker Barrel, whether it helped or not.

friends

Every Thursday night these folks come to our home and we spend about 2 1/2 - 3 hours together. Who are these great people??? Our SMALL GROUP! And, like I've said before, we are so blessed to be in community with them. God is growing all of us and has been doing so since we began meeting a little over a year ago.

Caleb & Michelle Dulock, Nikki & Craig Comolli, us, Brendon Hollingsworth, Josh & Elizabeth Audi

When I think back on my walk with Jesus, I know that it's been in the past 2 years that I've grown the most. The influence?

One of the biggest influences has been Daniel. God has used him in so many ways to grow me into a better woman of Him. I was told several months ago that when I married Daniel, he became a 'spiritual covering' and protection over me in the heavenlies. And, I very much believe that. God blessed me with this incredible man of Him and I am regularly reminded that Daniel is my gift of grace from Jesus, defining 'grace' as "getting what we don't deserve." I know that I didn't deserve the man that Daniel is, but I am so thankful that God saw it fit to give him to me - to point me to Jesus, to grow me in godliness.

Another big influence has been this small group - intentionally challenging one another to search our hearts and be set free in areas where we've allowed the enemy to hold us in bondage. God has been so merciful to all of as He has highlighted different areas in our lives where He wants to bring healing, to make us completely His. Of course, we're all a work in progress. None of us has arrived. He is our Potter. We are the clay. It's so great to be on this journey with these friends, though, and to be molded together in His image.

Celebrating the goodness of the friends we've been given today....

homecoming week at Dunbar

Daniel is teaching Spanish at Dunbar High School this year and this week is Homecoming week. They have themes for each day and today's theme is "the 70s & the 80s"....so, here's my husband, right before leaving for school today. And yes, he actually had these 2 items in his closet. Nice, huh???!! He "said" he bought the pants a while back for occasions such as this.

His students love him! ...who wouldn't?