It's a GIRL!!!

At 3:37am on May 11th, we welcomed our fourth child into the world!! AND, we got to be surprised...it's a GIRL!! We were so relieved no one spoiled the surprise this time (we found out Hudson was a boy at 38 weeks).

This labor was by far the best of the four. Turns out the contractions I was having on my birthday were really labor. We left for the hospital at 2am, and when we arrived at 2:40am I was 9cm (!!) and taken right to a room. Our daughter came less than an hour later!

I keep thinking of this verse from Scripture "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." John 16:21

Meeting Mollie Gage...

Dr. Bruton was amazing!! I had heard great things about her from my friend Stephanie Joyner, and I'm so thankful she delivered Mollie.

Proud Daddy :)

Mollie is 30 minutes old in this picture...looking SO alert!!

We were really disappointed that we wouldn't be able to tell Kate in person that God had given her the baby sister she had been praying for over the past FOUR years. Thankfully Mom was able to take her picture as I told her on the phone! I LOVE THIS!!! A picture truly is worth 1000 words...

Kate telling Carter the news

Team Reed, minus Hudson :(

Poor little guy was running a fever that day and was not allowed up to the room to see his baby sister.

Daria was scheduled to fly out Tuesday morning, but changed her flight so she could meet her new niece. So glad she did!!

We spent a long time deciding on her name. We chose Mollie after Josh's grandmother (his dad's mother). I never had the pleasure of meeting her (she died when Josh was in high school) but have heard such wonderful stories about her over the years! A true Proverbs 31 woman...

And Gage is for my mother...one of the most wonderful women I've ever been privileged to know. Here is Mimi holding her namesake for the very first time...my heart is filled to overflowing...

Kate and Carter saying "Hey!!" to Mollie. Carter kept looking at her, then looking at me and saying "Cute."

Precious. I can't believe she's ours.

Heading home from the hospital!

To be honest, I was a little nervous about delivering at a new hospital with a new doctor, but could not have been happier with our experience at Rex. Everything was top-notch!

Mollie came home in the same dress Kate came home in almost six years ago :)

Welcome Home sweet girl!

I noticed the next day that Kate had marked the occasion on Josh's white board...

Happy Birthday to me...

I turned 32 on the 10th...where have the years gone?! I enjoyed a very nice birthday this year and was blessed with sweet wishes from many friends and family. Mom and Daria were here to celebrate with us...always a treat to have them in town :)

Kate and Mimi making my birthday cake...white cake with chocolate icing...YUM!!

Josh and I enjoyed a birthday breakfast from Bojangle's and then went on to my 39 week dr. appointment. I was 4 cm and 70%, and Dr. Segal went ahead and scheduled me to be induced on May 19. An end is in sight!

That afternoon we all got to go and observe Kate's ballet/tap class. It was fun to see what they had been learning and practicing all year. Kate has loved Mrs. Cori :)

After dinner at one of my favorite Thai restaurants, we came back home for cake and presents. It was really weird not having Josh there...first time in twelve years he hasn't been with me for my birthday dinner (he had Philosophy class since it was Monday night).

Not sure what Hudson was so mad about here, but he was definitely not happy!

Kate dug the singing birthday hamster out of a box somewhere. We've had it for a few years now...I think we first got it for Kate's 1st birthday. I can't see that thing without thinking of Josh's grandmother Mema and how hard she laughs at it :) It sounds even funnier now because the batteries are on their last legs after 5 years of birthday fun...

I started having contractions during dinner but didn't think much about them since I'd had some pretty strong Braxton-Hicks contractions over that last several weeks. Towards the end of the night, I started to wonder if I was going to be getting a baby for my birthday...

Josh got home from class at 9:30 and we went out to walk up and down N. Main. The contractions kept coming, and started getting closer together...And now I'm wishing I would have gotten one last belly shot...

Mother's Day 2010

My last Mother's Day as a mother of three :)

Blessed to celebrate Mother's Day with my sister and our wonderful mother...

And a belated celebration the next week with Josh's wonderful mother, too!

Some Thoughts from Josh...

So, Saturday night around 2:30am, Jacelyn felt that perhaps her contractions had started. The body beginning to prepare itself to bring forth life. To do so, though, she must struggle and strain, push and rest, trust and hope. All this must take place before the baby can come out. But one thing is certain, the baby must come out. It has gotten too big to remain.

This is God's plan from the beginning. And the struggle is due to the Fall. Because of Eve's rebellion, childbirth would be painful. Bringing forth life would have been painless? Ah, indeed, but it never happens pre-Fall. But God's ways are higher than ours. There is much wisdom in this. Just in case our thoughts and ideas would perceive wrongly, God did not allow pre-Fall birth. Everyone born of a woman came through tribulations. God's prescription said so. And the reason is to give us yet another portrait of redemption, of life. You see, Lord willing, Jacelyn will push and struggle and endure by God's grace and at some point in the future, a baby will be born. Jacelyn will be exhausted...but there will be inexpressible joy upon the first tones of the baby's cries. Soon Jacelyn will forget all about the pain and delight in this newborn life.

The analogy runs twofold. First, Christ endured this life through many struggles and tribulations. There was not one easy moment for Him on this earth because the cross was ever before Him. Just as the anticipation of His arrival was so great by those looking for the Messiah, so the anticipation of His work was. But His work was one of suffering. He had to suffer for our sakes. He had to endure everything the Fall had brought about. And when He endured the beatings, the mockery, the extreme torture of the cross, the humility of being buried in a borrowed tomb (He had no place to lay His head!), the earth began to experience birth pains. For when they laid the Son of Man in the tomb, He was already too big for it. The heavens could not contain Him, how could a sepulchre? And just as He had promised, after three days, He emerged, conquering sin and death once for all! And when He had done so, there was no more suffering for Him to endure, He himself had said "It is finished!" No, the womb of the tomb could not contain the Son of God. Life was coming forth to usher in a new humanity, an indestructible one that can now be ours by faith. Everyone born of a woman will die because of the curse, but everyone born of heaven will never taste death because of what Christ has done.

Second, the analogy progresses further still. This life, the one we live in between His two advents, is another type of pregnancy, labor. As the good doctor recorded, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven. We will struggle and fight and do battle against spiritual enemies all our time here. Days upon days where we will lament with the Psalmist, "How long, O LORD?" Yet the hope Jesus ushered in when He emerged from the grave is our hope. For blessed are all who take refuge in Him. This life is life in utero and as one passing through the birth canal. Fighting, struggling...but where light breaks through on the other side into a deathless eternity, the pain and toil will long be forgotten. This is Peter's meditation in 1 Peter 1:3-9.

So my hope is this: "Though weeping may tarry through the night, joy comes in the morning." When this baby is born, it will remind me once again of the great hope we have in Christ, resurrection...life...joy.