Saturday, February 20, 2010

the first week of jude wicker

welcome jude wicker o'brien!  our son was born on February 12, 2010 at 11:01am weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz., 20 1/2 inches.  we delivered at beth israel hospital in boston and could not be more thankful for our friend and doctor, mimi, and many other great provisions from the Lord.  one of the doctors who delivered jude goes to our church (as does our OB, Mimi), and many others from our church who work at that hospital who were such blessings to us.  it has been a wonderful and difficult week.  jude has had a very difficult time feeding and lost almost a pound after birth.  ginger was re-admitted to the hospital on wednesday for high blood pressure after going in for a quick check up, and we were back in the hospital for 2 days only 3 days after we had come home from the hospital.  but we have seen God's provision for us in ways that we cannot count, and are thankful even for these hard times as they have made us desperately dependent on God's grace and sustaining us.  we are doing much better now - jude has turned a corner in feeding, is gaining his weight back, and ginger is on the road to healing.  thank you so much, dear friends and family, for your emails, phone calls, and prayers.  we wanted to share some of our special moments and pictures with you guys.  


Monday, February 8, 2010

Pregnancy Progress

These are at weeks 14, 20, 27, 33, and 39, respectively.  I am currently 39 weeks and ready for him to arrive!



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Saturday, February 6, 2010

reading list

so, i finished my seminary degree this month … this was a huge sigh of relief given that I was on schedule to graduate this past August until pregnancy took on a life of its own and delayed me an entire semester, landing my last exam about 6 weeks before our first child is due. Good timing. BUT, as much as I loved seminary and miss being in class and writing exegesis papers (seriously…one of my favorite parts of seminary), it is utterly thrilling to think about getting to actually choose… of my own volition … which books I want to read. My list is so long I feel rather paralyzed by where to start. Granted, necessity has me reading a book about newborn care right now since I thought, contra my instinct, that learning how to bathe, feed, and swaddle an infant probably rank in higher priority than my reading of Our Reasonable Faith by Bavinck. So I’m reading infant care books right now. But as some of you have asked what books are on my list to read now that seminary is over, here is a snapshot of my list:

  • Our Reasonable Faith, by Herman Bavinck (a concise systematic theology)
  • Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf
  • Running Scared by Ed Welch (a book on dealing with fear – a struggle of mine this past year)
  • Gospel Driven Life by Michael Horton
  • Life and Diary of David Brainard by Jonathan Edwards
  • Mortification of Sin by John Owen
  • American Shaolin by Matthew Polly
  • the rest of The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
  • Anne of Green Gables series

Any suggestions or good reads you’ve come across lately?