Sophie Update #2

Well, its official... Sophie is 48 hours old. Today was a good day for her. We are starting to know her nurses that are taking care of her and they are both amazing ladies. The NICU is open 24 hours a day, but closes between 6:30 and 8 am & pm.
Today we were able to give her a bottle and try to help her get some much needed food. Here is a pic of me being pretty focused on getting her food. She needs to take about 30 cc's of formula (pray Charity can breastfeed soon) every three hours per the NICU.
They want us to be able to hold her when she eats. If you notice the formula taped to my shirt; that goes down the tube into her tummy and gets her the food she needs. Sometimes its just hard to grab your baby who has all these tubes and wires on her, but it also makes me thankful that I have a baby.
<--Tired face after eating.
Its pretty weird for us right now; we left the hospital but Sophie stayed. She had a really good day, but her lungs are still having trouble.
The staff is pretty convinced that her throat is irritated from all the suctioning that took place after birth.
I had to throw in the picture of daddy changing his first diaper, boy was that a full diaper! I did my best and got rolling, but Sophie must have been saving up because she pooped two more times while I was wiping her. Don't worry, I didn't get any on my hands! But look at that face.
Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures of Charity with Sophie up here and some more face shots for you all. In all reality she is a healthy, beautiful, little girl that just had a rough start.
Some specifics to pray for:
* Sophie's throat to heal
* Sophie to want to suckle
* Sophie's lungs test to come back better
* Her lungs to get strong enough to get off the oxygen tubes
* Charity and I to get some rest and a good night sleep.
Thanks so much for all the prayers and love!

Baby Sophie Update #1

Sophie is doing really good. She is still in the NICU and getting all her antibiotics; really she is on the road to recovery. Yesterday was a good day, but hard. When we went into see her in the morning she had her "hood" on. The doctors were concerned with her oxygen levels in her blood and this hood was over her head being filled with 100% oxygen. Honestly, it was pretty scary seeing her like this.
The next time I went into see her, probably about 2:30pm it was off. I started to cry. I walked into her room and thought my baby was gone, but just the opposite. Her oxygen levels had risen and she was able to get the hood off.
Over the last 18 hours the percent of pure oxygen she has been given is dramatically decreasing. Thank you all for praying for our little baby.

Last night I was able to hold her for the first time (the one time I didn't bring the camera).
Charity was able to spend some time with her last night and tried feeding.
This morning when we got down she looked amazing. She had just finished eating (she gained about 4 ounces already) and was sleeping. This picture (to the right) is her this morning. She still has oxygen in her nose and a feeding tube down her nose. The oxygen level is down to 21% and the pressure is 1/2 a liter (down from a liter last night). I spoke with the doctor and she has "Meconium Asperation"; which means she pooped in the uterus and inhaled it. She will be on antibiotics for 5 days (total) and hopefully we can take her home Sunday or Monday.
Please keep praying for Sophie and us. This is a draining time emotionally. We are leaving the hospital today without our baby (not the first people in the world to do this I imagine). We are just scared.
Pray specifically for:
* Healthy Lungs
* To gain strength in suckling
* The antibiotics to work
Thank you all so much!

Sophie Marie Benson 8-26-2008

Watch out world, here I come! Welcome Sophie Marie Benson into the world.
Charity and I went to the hospital at about 3pm. By 6pm she was dilated to 8cm and her water was broken. Around 8pm she was fully dilated and ready to go. Our doctor arrived to the hospital about an hour later and pushing began. At 9:44pm out came Sophie:











Here is the first time I held Daddy's hand:

















Check me out! Sophie wanted to sit up and see Mommy, she was tired:
















About 20 min later Sophie was taken to the NNICU (Neo Natal Infant Care Unit) because she had inhaled some meconium into her lungs. She will most likely be there for about 2-3 days. Please pray for God to work in a miraculous way in our baby's life!

2 days left

So I kinda messed up, missed the Sunday update and now its down to two days until our due date. Yesterday was fairly uneventful. We watched the Chargers game, they won, we went to bed. But at about midnight Charity started having contractions.
She timed them for an hour and was hurting pretty bad. After an hour and a half of those we went to the hospital at about 1:30am. I was pretty sure we were having a kid. She was crying from the pain and then we got there and no more contractions. Well... not no more, but much less frequent.
We stayed there till about 3am and then came home. Charity woke up at about 5:30 with more contractions, took a bath and started timing them. We called her doctor this morning and are going in at 11am to see what is going on. She has been having contractions all morning, so we are just in wait mode (that's what I call it).
Please keep praying that Sophie comes on or before the 28th. Thanks!

4 days left

Today has been a fairly mellow day. Charity is done with work so her and her sister went out and got their nails done. The contractions are not as frequent as they were a couple days ago, but much more intense. This is definitely running our lives right now. I go to work and keep my phone super close. Today is my day off, so I have been at home working on homework all day.
We are praying, and would love for you to join us, that baby Sophie Marie will come out sometime between now and August 28th (which is her due date). We were pretty sure we would have a kid already given how frequent and intense Charity's contractions were at the end of last week. But we are in peace that God knows when she will come.
Last night was the best night of sleep I have gotten since the contractions started. Charity slept through the night, mostly, and got rested up too. She is such a trooper, I have the best wife ever. Well, please keep us in your prayers.

The Weather is Crazy!

The weather is crazy right now. It was like 100 degrees today and now its all thunder, lighting and rain. The weather can turn crazy here in like 10 min and that is exactly what it did today! Rosie just jumped because the thunder is so loud, the lighting is getting worse as I write and I am kinda scared standing next to the widow as the rain pelts it! I love it when it does this!

What if...

I was talking with Jessica (Charity's sister) this morning and I was wondering; "What if Transformers, the movie, is really a documentary?" Wouldn't that be sweet! I grew up loving transformers and maybe the movie is a way to ease the public into the fact that robots live among us???
Ok, probably not realistic, but could be super cool!

We exist to impact lives

This summer we did a series from Doug Fields called "When People Meet Jesus". We looked at different parables of when people met Jesus and the change that took place in their lives. We decided that, every week of this series, we would have someone share their story about meeting Jesus.
Here is the video of Colton Scholfield's story of meeting Jesus. Colton is going to Carrol College and playing football. He is an amazing young man that loves Jesus and has such a great heart. This video is encouragement of why we do what we do. I came out here thinking that I was going to be a middle school pastor (now I'm the high school pastor) and realized that I am really a missionary in a dark place. I have the best job ever! I cant wait to see more and more of what God has planned for us to do here.

5 days left

Tonight it hits me again that in about 5 days I can be a dad. I don't want to say "will be" because who knows when Sophie will come out except Jesus. Today was pretty mellow, yet packed. I woke up early (for a Saturday to go to Men's Breakfast: amazing). Got home around 10 and spent some time with Charity and her sister.
Last night I started reformatting the hard drive on her computer because we got a Macbook. Apple is having a sweet deal right now, for the student program (working on my masters at Fuller Seminary) where you buy a Macbook and get a free iPod touch. We are selling her comp to help sweeten the deal and lower the price. Also going to sell the iPod on eBay to help out too (great idea I think).
Then Jessica (Charity's sister) had her boyfriend fly into town and we had lunch with them at the pad. After that Charity and I took a nap, read my Bible, bought a Dyson (comes with a free $40 gift card at Target), then went to Shaun and Krystal's house for dinner.
Today was pretty amazing. The contractions are not much today. She had for about an hour between 8-9pm, but they are almost done now. Not sure what to think. I know she wants the baby out, but God knows when is the best time. Thanks for all the prayers. We love you all!

6 days left

Today marks six days till Charity's due date. We are both pretty scared still. The contractions are still happening so I think we are just in wait mode. I have heard that it can take up to three weeks to get the baby out (not stoked). Charity is not in super bad pain, but I know she is feeling pretty bad. She had some gnarly contractions this morning during breakfast. It is so amazing having her sister her to help us through and work on all this. I am able to go to work and get some stuff done (nothing huge, too focused on making sure she is ok). It is nice, she just got a Macbook, so we can do video chat. I like to see how she is doing.
Please keep praying for us!

7 days left

Today we went to the Doc and Charity is officially dilated. Our Doc says she is a 1 and 1/2. This means the baby can come at any time. She also was able to feel the head (sounds crazy to me). We had to stay around and Charity was put on a contraction monitor. She was on for about 25 min and had about 10 contractions (I think that is good). She has had a few contractions that lasted longer than 30 seconds, but we still need them to last longer. We are really in just wait mode right now.
I am super thankful that Charity's sister is here in town with us. She drove Charity around to do some errands today. I talked with her about an hour ago and she had some more contractions, please keep praying for us. Sophie will be here before we know it. Also our Doctor told us Sophie is about 6 and 3/4 pounds (not the average 8 pound Benson kid).

8 days left

Today marks 8 days left until Charity's due date. We have the nursery set up already. The crib is there, the changing table, diapers, more clothes than I have, toys, books, bath tub things... you name it. I am so excited right now, but so scared. Charity's sister arrived in town last night, so we are pretty much covered (I think). Charity is getting pretty big but she is still so beautiful. I am so excited! The pic is kinda blurry, I took it with my phone, but it looks like she swallowed a bowling ball.
We have had so many people give us advice. I would love to hear one thing that you suggest for us. I don't care if you have kids or not, I just want to see what everyone is thinking.

SM Pool Party

We got a Pool Party tonight for all Student Ministry! This is gonna be sweet. Summer is ending and we gotta have some more fun before school starts. Well be at the McComb's house:
781 Vista Sereno
Henderson, NV 89002

Hit it up! Free BBQ, toothpick game, volleyball and some worship!
If you get lost call Marc: 702-553-5917

Lunch @ Pei Wei

Today I had lunch @ Pei Wei with an amazing pastor. Doug Meye came to Vegas about twenty five years ago to plant a church. Doug has some huge respect in the Valley and I was honored to have lunch with him (he even payed!).
We started talking about life and he shared his passion to lead and help younger pastors, I was so stoked. He shared some great advice with me and he is what I will take:

1) The Church is Fragile. This was just an all around statement. We need to be careful with it.
2) Ask people how they are doing: What are you excited about? What are you concerned about?
3) Care less about your impression and more about your relationship with God

He shared a story with me about pennies. He said that in every setting you have so many pennies. For example when you get hired, if people like you, you get 20 pennies to start with. If you got out and double the group and lead some key students to Christ in the first month you get 30 pennies. Lets say four months later you go to camp and something bad happens, like a discipline issue, you loose 10 pennies. He just asked me to make sure you make smart wagers with what you have. He shared about tenure and how that is so important. I am excited about his lunch and Doug speaking into my life.

Date Night

Tonight is the most important night of the week. Its not High School Ministry, Bible Study, Small Group or anything related to the church. Tonight is Date Night.
Charity and I do date night every Monday night. Its a time for us to put the computer away, turn the cell phone off and just have some us time. I love date night. It gives me the time I need with my wife.
To make date night effective we both have to really protect the time. There are about 100 things that I could be doing instead of date night. There are two things that are pressing right now: Pool Party tomorrow night and a fourteen page paper on Ephesians 6:10-20. Both of those can wait. Date night must be protected. If my marriage is not the second most priority in my life (God being number one) then anything can take precedence.
I think this is something good for anyone in ministry to consider and put down on their schedule. Show your wife that she is import and that you love; start date night and make it a priority. I'm out to dinner with my wife!

Why the waves stop

Have you ever been to the ocean and wondered why the waves stop where they do? I mean, really, what keeps them from just going and flooding the near by streets? Is it gravity? Is there not enough water in the ocean so it comes back? What about the gravitational pull?
Today I was reading in the book of Jeremiah and came across this scripture:

Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
“Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
Jeremiah 5:22 (New International Version)

God tells the waves where to stop. God makes that happen. God is such a God of order that He will not allow crazy things happen. I am very thankful that this world was created on purpose and not on accident. If it was created on accident the waves may not know where to stop and many people could get hurt.

Great Quote

Do not be angry that you cannot make others as you would wish
them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
-- Thomas à Kempis

Cookies

Charity just made the best cookies! I know this is random, but I have the most amazing wife ever. And there is nothing that tastes better than warm cookies washed down with cold milk.

38 weeks

Today Charity and I went in for our 38 week baby appointment. If you are like me and didn't know all these baby terms at one time its all good. The baby is typically in the tummy (technical term) for 40 weeks. That means we are just two weeks away from the due date.
My thought (not medical advice) is that the due date is just a random guess to make women feel good and then they have a date that they can make their husbands due everything by. I am not insinuating that Charity is making me due things, I have actually self-initiated many projects. I want the house to be ready for Sophie.

The Cardinal Sin

I think that yesterday I may have committed the "Cardinal Sin"...
I bought a scale and my wife is 9 months pregnant (its for me though!)