Karis Lynn is 1 month old today. How can it both seem like yesterday and like a year ago at the same time? It has been quite the journey for our family in 2016.
It was the last few days of March when Matthea and I learned she had become pregnant. We were excited and scared all at the same time. It had been almost 2 years since June of 2014 when our son Kai was stillborn. He died 5 days before his due date. We weren’t sure if we would have another child. We weren’t sure if we wanted to venture down the road of pregnancy again. But, here we were with the news of another child. We didn’t tell anyone for a while. When we went to the OB doctor to confirm the pregnancy our 4 year-old son Christian sat in the corner of the room watching Netflix on an iPhone. We didn’t think he was paying attention. Later that day he proceeded to tell his siblings, “Mama has a baby in her belly and it’s a little girl. I know it’s a sister.” We swore our kids to secrecy. We were all excited and scared together. Our 4 older kids had been through so much we knew we were on this journey together.
To our surprise they kept the secret from everyone for 6 weeks! When the day came to share the news publicly, we were excited and scared. By this point we had spent 2 months trusting the Lord each day to watch over this little child. Our doctor (who was wonderful the entire pregnancy) would say to us, “we will take it one day at a time, and today everything looks good.” That was our reality every day for the entire pregnancy. These were quite profound words! In July we learned that this baby was indeed a sister! Christian was right! Everyone was so excited. Everyone was scared. Our 12 year-old daughter had long ago given up hope on having a sister. After having 4 brothers, it seemed like a sister would never come.
Through the fall we went every week to the doctor. They checked her heart rate and her growth with ultrasounds. They took such great care of us. Every day we were taking it one day at a time. Every day she was doing great. As we neared the end of the pregnancy, we were even more excited and even more scared. We were trusting in the Lord more and more. The doctor wanted to induce labor about 3 weeks early, so on the morning of November 15th, we arrived at the hospital. We were excited. We were scared. Later in the day we decided for a C-Section, we wanted to be cautious. She was born just before 6 PM. Karis Lynn Mae Glass was finally here! The name Karis means “grace”. She certainly is God’s gift to our family.
It has been a real journey walking daily with the Lord through this. He never promised another child. He never promises a healthy child. He DOES promise to never leave us or forsake us. We have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and He was with us the whole time. Thank you for your prayer for our family and for little Karis Lynn.
A Pastor's Thoughts 