Griffin's Birth Story

*warning: lengthy post ahead!

On December 28, 2019, our third child, Griffin Jack Lowery, made his entrance into the world at 38 weeks 6 days. My initial goal when we found out we were pregnant and learned my due date was early January was just to make it through Christmas Day. And thankfully, he listened and cooperated!

The night of the 26th I did not sleep well at all. I just tossed and turned all night and could not get comfortable--which was not the norm. I had been sleeping great the entire pregnancy! Friday, December 27th, I just felt "off." I had lost my mucous plug on Christmas Day so I knew labor was more than likely coming within the next few days (Daniel was really hoping it happened before January 1st so we could get the tax credit lol).  I had no appetite, I didn't feel super well and starting about 1pm I had some pelvic pressure. I took a hot shower to see if that would relieve it at all and it didn't. 

A sweet friend of mine is a L&D nurse and I knew she was working (fun fact--I initially met her because she was my nurse with Holt) so I texted her my symptoms. I had never gone into labor on my own before! She advised me to come in and just get checked out. Of course, we had dinner plans with our BFF's, so I texted Kaley to let her know what was going on. We decided they would go ahead and come over to our house, the boys would stay with the big kids and she would go with me to the hospital and just see if anything was happening. 

4pm--I get into a triage room. My contractions are irregular BUT I was 3cm and 70% effaced (at my appointment on Monday I was only a 1cm and 0% effaced). I drink some ice water and we decide to walk the hallways for an hour. 

5:45pm--they check me again. Still a 3cm and 70% but baby has moved down and my contractions are in a consistent pattern of every 2-4 minutes. They decide to admit me, believing I am in early labor. I decide to walk some more. The doctor on call is Dr. Farrell--she was extremely nice and really cute! I am so thankful for God's provision in that a great doctor was on call and Audra was working! I call Daniel and let him know what's going on--he finishes packing stuff for the hospital and gathering things together. I also call my parents (the 27th is their anniversary) and Daniel calls his parents, so they decide to get their stuff together and head to Fort Smith. 

7:45pm--Daniel arrives at the hospital. Kaley went back to my house to wait with my kids until my in-laws could get there. I get checked again. I am almost a 4. Baby is more engaged in the pelvis. 

10:00pm--my parents arrived about 9pm. My Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda (the photographer)  and my grandmother made it about 9:45pm or so. I have been bouncing on the ball and my contractions have still steadily been coming every 2-4 minutes. So far I have been handling the contractions really well and haven't had to request an epidural yet. I get checked again and I'm 5cm and 75% effaced. 

Starting about 11pm, my contractions started spacing out and calmed down for a while--maybe a contraction every 15 minutes or so. We finally decided to try and get some sleep and I slept from 3:30-5:30am. 

6:00am--check me again and I'm still 5 cm. They decide to break my water and get me on pitocin to get things moving again. I request an epidural because I know what pitocin contractions feel like an I don't want to miss my window.

6:40am--get my epidural

7:00am---Audra is back for the day shift so I get to have her as my nurse!

9:00am---I'm a 7-8cm. Things are moving!

9:30am--8-9cm. Audra has another lady in labor needing to push so she turns down the pitocin in hopes of me stalling a bit.

10:50am---I am feeling pressure and like i need to push. I call Audra and tell her to hurry!

10:55am--Audra rushes in and calls the new on call doctor--Dr. Hill. 

10:59am--I start pushing. Dr. Hill asks Daniel if he wants to announce the gender.

11:05am--its a BOY! Griffin Jack Lowery is born---he has some good lungs and is absolutely perfect!

7lbs 3 oz
19 ¼ inches


We did not find out with this pregnancy whether we were expecting a boy or girl--our first surprise! And it was one of the NEATEST moments of my life! Daniel got to call out whether it was a boy or girl and it was just like nothing I had ever experienced. If we decide to have a 4th baby, we will probably keep it a surprise again! It's always emotional when your baby is born, but this one was a little more so due to the fact he was our rainbow baby. It was a really precious moment!

Griffin was born at 11:05am and our big kids came up to meet him about 2:00pm that afternoon. It was a precious time! They were pretty smitten with him from the beginning and were sad to leave the hospital without him, but we assured them we would be home the next day.

In true 3rd kid fashion, we didn't even decide on names until I was about 37 weeks pregnant. I think it was driving everyone else nuts more than us! We finally sat down and hashed it out one weekend in December--my parents had taken the bigs to Branson for the weekend with the rest of my family and we had an entire kid-free weekend---it was amazing!

Our boy name was pretty easy to agree on. Griffin had been on my list since college. It's just a name I came across and liked--it was different, not heard of often, very masculine sounding, and I loved the meaning--"fierce warrior." We also love to incorporate family names when naming our babies. Jack was my grandpa's name and means "God is gracious." I have always been very close with my grandparents and when Daniel joined the family, they treated him as if he was another grandson. So it was especially meaningful to both of us to use it. Boy name...done!

The girl name was much harder. We had a list of girl names but Daniel didn't really like any of them. So back to the drawing board we went! We finally found one we both liked and could imagine using if this baby ended up being a girl--Annelise. Annelise means "God pledged His grace" which we thought was especially fitting since this was our rainbow baby. It also incorporates family names--my paternal grandmother's name is Joanne, so we liked that it incorporated "Anne" from her, and Elise is a family name on Daniel's side. We both had already agreed on a middle name--Rose--after my maternal grandmother who's middle name is also Rose. So if Griffin had been a girl, his name would have been Annelise Rose. Maybe if we go for a 4th and it ends up a girl, we will use it then!

We got home from the hospital about 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon and my mom and grandmother stayed with us the first night to help with the big kids. They had decided that Monday morning they would take Holt and Evie back to Conway for the week to give us a chance to recover and just enjoy one-on-one time with Griffin. They left about 11:30am and at 12:15pm, my mom called in a panic. She told me that my grandpa Jack had died very suddenly that morning. I stood frozen for a moment before going into crisis mode and making a plan. The plan was they would pull off at Ozark, eat lunch, and Daniel would head that way to get Holt and Evie and bring them back home. Griffin had his first doctor appointment the next day, but as soon as that was over we would head to Conway to be with the family.

While we were shocked and obviously saddened about his sudden passing, God's fingerprints were all over the situation:

1) Griffin came on his own 8 days before his due date. In all reality, this shouldn't have happened. I don't have my babies early. If I had still been pregnant when he died, I would not have been able to travel for the funeral. Plus, since Griffin did come early, my grandpa knew he had a great grandson named after him before he died which I am so thankful for!

2) It allowed us to have some of the tough conversations about death and what happens after we die with our children. We believe the Bible is absolute truth and we believe God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth,  where he died for our sins on the cross and was raised to life 3 days later, conquering death and allowing us the opportunity to live in heaven with him for all eternity. We also believe that you will not go to heaven after you die unless you believe in Him--John tells us in his gospel that Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We were able to tell our children that even though we were burying Poppa Jack's physical body, he wasn't there anymore. Instead, we know he is with Jesus in Heaven, because Jesus lived in his heart and he lived his life for Him. On the night of December 30th (the day Poppa Jack died), Holt decided he wanted to ask Jesus to live in his heart and be the boss of his life! We rejoiced in this news and I know my grandpa would have been so happy to know Holt made such a wonderful decision!

3) My grandpa had been battling the beginning of Alzheimer's for the last couple of years. Even though we miss him terribly, the Lord was so gracious in that my grandpa never had to suffer in the later stages of Alzheimer's and he was in great physical health, up until the moment he died.

Needless to say, the first week of Griffin's life was very eventful. We are so thankful to have a healthy, happy baby boy join our family and can't wait to watch him grow!

We love you Griffin Jack! So thankful you're ours! 

Dreams Do Come True

Now that things have settled down a bit, I finally have time to dish some details on our move back to Arkansas. First of all, let me say, GOD IS GOOD.

This process started about 4 months ago. Around Thanksgiving, we started having contact with FBC in Fort Smith. We actually met face-to-face with Daniel's boss that weekend since we were in town. It was an informal meeting and we knew they had other people they were interviewing and considering for the position, but I think we both walked away from that meeting feeling hopeful and trying not to get too excited. Thinking our timeline to move was after graduation in May, we didn't really anticipate a fast interview process. Suddenly, in mid-January, the Doctor I worked for in Louisville got deathly ill and had to be hospitalized. They honestly didn't think he was going to live through that week. He had a bowel perforation, underwent surgery, went into cardiac arrest as well as sustaining liver and kidney failure. (Thankfully he is on the mend now) Absolutely crazy and scary! Well, being an assistant to him, if he is not working in the office, then they don't have a need for me and therefore I wasn't working either. Daniel and I started freaking out a little bit because we knew that we would not be able to survive and pay bills if I lost my job. We prayed and consulted our families and decided to turn in our 30-day move out notice to our apartment complex. Biggest leap of faith ever! Either God was going to lead us to where He wanted us to serve in ministry within those 30 days, or we were going to move in with family until we figured it out.   

Once we made that decision, Daniel contacted the church and explained our situation to them. They had already told us they wanted us to come down for a weekend to interview and meet some of the staff. They were so kind in working with us and asked if we could come down and stay for the very next week (keep in mind this was like 9:30 on a Thursday night and we would have to leave the next day). Since I wasn't working anyway, I called my office manager to make sure that was ok and she said yes. So we packed up and headed to Arkansas bright and early the next morning! We got to Fort Smith and had a week of meeting staff and people at the church, lunches, dinners, interviews, etc. We even got a chance to drive around and look for a house to rent. It was wonderful! After meeting and interviewing with the Personnel Committee on Wednesday night they called us Thursday morning and informed us it was a unanimous decision and "unofficially" offered him the job of Associate Pastor of Connections. I say unofficially because once it passes with the personnel committee, it's about 99% sure to pass with the deacons and the rest of the church, but it would not be "for sure" official until that happened on February 10th. Knowing our situation with having to be out of our apartment by February 16th, they went ahead and told us so I could turn in my two weeks notice at my job and we put a deposit down on the house we found to rent.

We came back down the weekend of February 10th to interview with the deacons and be voted on by the church and it was a passing vote with 97% yes! We drove back to Louisville, had the pleasure of having a moving company come and pack up our stuff and move us (if you EVER get that opportunity do not pass it up!) and came back to Arkansas for good on February 17th!!

To say it has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. But let me tell you, God's timing is everything! We never could have dreamed up these circumstances but it has been such a blessing! Daniel is settling into his new role and absolutely loving it (I feel like this job was created just for him--it is so perfect!) and he is also finishing school full-time so he can graduate in May! Please be in prayer for us on a few things:

1. For Daniel to keep up with his schoolwork and finish strong. I cannot tell you how wonderful the church has been-- letting him do some of his work while at the office! I am SO proud of him and I know he will continue to do great!
2. For me to find the perfect job in the perfect timing. Another blessing is I am able to draw unemployment due to us moving states for Daniel's job and the fact that I basically lost my previous job because my doctor got sick. This is helping out and taking some of the intense pressure off of me, but I still need to find a job and work so we can save money for the future.
3.For us to settle in to our new ministry and that the Lord would be glorified.

Words cannot express how excited we are to be back in Arkansas! Being closer to our friends and families is so fun and we absolutely are already in love with the community of Fort Smith!

Blessings

I am so embarassed....i literally have not written a blogpost in 5 months! There IS an explanation for that, BUT there is fun news to share! :)  So, if you're in a hurry, here is the jist of this post: I GOT A FULL-TIME JOB IN MY FIELD! Praise the Lord, He is so faithful!

Ok, now if you have time to continue, read on.

 I haven't written a blogpost since February---life was pretty rough and honestly I was too depressed to write anything. I was working two jobs, both of which were high-stress and caused me to be on my feet for hours on end, and a lot of days I was working double shifts with Apple in the morning and then waitressing at Macaroni Grill at night. Needless to say, life was not at it's most enjoyable. But I did what I had to do to provide for my family. Since February, I have had probably 7ish interviews all around Louisville and I kept getting the whole, "Thanks for taking the time and interest in us, but there was someone else who was more qualified. We hope you'll continue to apply for other positions." SO FRUSTRATING! It kept getting my hopes up that this was finally going to be it and I would be delivered from my current situation...and everytime my hopes got dashed and I would be this emotional roller-coaster.

Finally, one Sunday in late May/early June, God got my attention. Our pastor, Dr. Hamilton, was preaching from Jeremiah--talking about the Israelites and their idols. And he said something that grabbed my attention. To paraphrase, he said, "Idols are not necessarily tangible things and they are not necessarily always bad things. The way to know if you have an idol in your life is to examine your heart and tell yourself, ok....is there something I'm hoping for that I don't think I could be TRULY happy without obtaining it for myself?" And it was like a brick hit me on top of the head! I had been idolizing finding a full-time job---I wasn't going to be happy without it. And at that point, my attitude changed. I wasn't seeing that God had ALREADY blessed me with TWO jobs! Maybe not jobs in my field or jobs that I enjoyed, but at least I was bringing in income. And I know deep down that God has a plan for me that's even more perfect that I can ever imagine.

Literally, THAT WEEK I got 3 interviews for 3 different places. I interviewed at the Seminary for a secretarial position, I interviewed at a local dental office for a receptionist position, and I interviewed at Advanced Foot and Ankle Clinic for a Medical Assistant position. Secretly, I was hoping for the medical assistant (duh). I mean, it let me use my degree I went to four years of school for, it was Monday-Friday with no weekends (hallelujah!) or holidays, and not to mention the office manager who interviewed me was awesome! She and I instantly clicked and I knew I would love to work with her. What was even better is she told me they were hoping to fill the position by the end of that week! Well, obviously that didn't happen---she called me the next week saying the 2 doctors decided to take a two week vacation and then she would be on vacation the week after...so everything was put on hold for a whole month! Well, in that month, the Seminary informed me they had found someone else to fill the position I interviewed for, the dental office was also on hold due to family vacations and the like, and I got to go on vacation with some of my family as well.

I got the call yesterday morning (Monday, July 16th) from the office manager at Advanced Foot and Ankle, saying that while she had been away on vacation, two members of their staff had suddenly had to quit. So, this expedited the process of hiring me (yay!). She actually OFFERED me the positon at 10:15 AM yesterday morning, asking if I could start immediately in 2 weeks! This completely floored me! I was under the impression she would call me yesterday, probably say the doctors wanted to interview me and the other candidates before making any final decisions, and then probably have an answer by the end of this week. But man was I wrong!! I was absolutely THRILLED! I had to turn in my 2 weeks notice at both places yesterday (which I have never done before and is not fun at all, but they were so great about it) and I start to work on Monday, July 30th! I'm still kind of in shock and can't believe it's really happening!

I will truly miss the people I work with at Apple and Macaroni Grill---they made work fun! And I know that what I have learned about business and about myself by working at these places will carry with me wherever I go for the rest of my life.

God is good. God keep His promises. God is faithful. He never left me or forsake me--even when I was depressed and had doubts. His plan is better than my own and for that I am grateful. Thank you to everyone who has been in prayer for me and Daniel over this past year (already!) we have lived in Louisville. You will never know how much we appreciate it! And it obviously works because the Lord has heard our prayers and answered them with the perfect job for me! :)

Engagement

Today marks the 2 year-anniversary of our engagement...the day that my dream of a life with the man I love became a reality. As many of you know, I was surprised (or maybe a better phrase is absolutely SHOCKED) and completely caught off guard when he proposed--which lead to my infamous response of "shut up!". :)

I'm going to take a moment to brag on my man: he did SUCH an amazing job with the proposal. It was better than I could ever have imagined! He really put a lot of thought into it--he knew my favorite place in the world was the beach, he picked out the absolute perfect ring, AND he kept the entire thing a secret for 2 months. But the best part of the whole thing was that he told me those words every little girl dreams of hearing from the time she is 6 years old: "I want to spend the rest of my life with YOU...will you marry me?" ME. He wanted to marry ME. At the time, I was too shocked and speechless to cry, but when I think about it now-- about how special that moment was, I'll admit I get a little teary-eyed.

Since that day, we have been through lots of life changes:
1) planning a wedding--and ALL the little details that go into it
2) we have since both graduated from college
3) we found our first home together...a duplex in north little rock
4) he got his first "big boy" job
5) made it through our first year of marriage (which was absolutely WONDERFUL, but it takes some adjustment to learn to live with someone)
6) prayed about and made the decision for him to go back to school at SBTS
7) moved to Louisville
8) currently looking for MY first "big girl" job

Throughout all of those changes, it has been a huge emotional roller-coaster...and i'm really not one to be very emotional. I have learned so much about myself and grown a lot in my faith. But even though it has been a roller-coaster, I have had two big constants in my life: my God and my husband. God has proven his faithfulness over and over and over, from jobs to where we live to taking a HUGE leap of faith and moving to Kentucky. And Daniel has proven his love and faithfulness as my husband, being my rock and comforter and best friend.

My mom always told me when I was younger that time flies as you get older...and I was always like "yeah right." But it is so true! Looking back at all that has happened in 2 years, let alone just this past year, makes me excited about things to come in the future years. My life verse for the next year is Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future." God ALWAYS keeps His promises.