Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

In the life I have been allowed to live for the past 26 years I have often thought about the principle and reason of my life. As many of you are well aware Jeni and I have made a commitment to serve God in International Missions. The more I think about being a father and read this chapter of Psalms the more I consider the home the Lord is building. The city that doesnt have the Lords protection .... Well you see they guard in vain.

God is the element of our life, or should be the one guiding the plans of our life. Proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. So if this life is about God's plan would not the heritage from God be for GOD !!

I think so - So consider this If the arrows in the hands of a warrior are the sons born in one's youth. Would not the little one God has given us that appears to be coming along in March be a great missionary.

Jeni and I not only had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate my birthday today we also had a doctors visit and heard the heartbeat of our first little bit. If you look very close you will see the head and a small arm in the middle of the picture.

By the time we got to the ultrasound appointment, Jeni had to go with a full bladder... ha ha who ever thinks they need to tell a pregnant woman this.... must be crazy, or have never had a pregnant wife. Well we made it to the appointment and she had a wonderful time filling out the paper work ... they took and old device and attempted to hear the heart beat with a hand held box.

Needless to say we listened and listened, and the doc could find nothing... NO problem she said. You need to just go to the other office and they will perform and ultrasound. We made the time for our second appt of the day and waited on the next technician. She looked exactly how an ultrasound technician should look. Pleasant cute gray headed lady that made you feel like she had done this since the machine was created. I don't know. Post-urination euphoria or something. All I know is that Jeni was ready to see that little baby, the lady warmed up the ultrasound goo before starting the procedure.

In the 15 seconds it took for her to locate the uterus, the screen was blank and empty and completely devoid of anything remotely baby-like, and I though that Jeni was not pregnant "and has some splaining to do" She sure has been demanding lots of chicken salad this past week.

"And there's your baby!" she said.

As Jeni looked at the screen and the lady was printing off pictures we began to hear -

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

"And thats your Baby's heartbeat" she said.

The technician printed out 10 pictures but we only got 4 but unfortunately they don't offer the heartbeat as an MP3 file for the iPod. It's like living in the Dark Ages, I swear. Yet you can understand we are talking about listing to a thum sound who would be crazy enough to list to that over and over.... Well I did go out and find a file that I could listen to randomly when ever I was thinking about my little baby.

Jeni has not suffered much from morning sickness.... but the baby sure does like to snack (ha ha) I will give you more details and info as they come together.