Family in Blue

Timothy Paul Reed Jr. was born on Sept. 20th, 2007

Timothy Paul Reed Jr. was born a hefty 8 lbs. and 5 oz. He wore a nice head of dark hair and measured 21 inches.
His newborn features favored Hannah's but we could definitely see both of his sisters reflected.
His original due date was Sept. 28th but mommy and Dr. decided that an induction on the 20th would be perfect.
We (parents) were set to start the day early, arriving at the hospital around 5:00 a.m to begin inducing and maybe having the baby by 12:00 noon. Well, God and Timmy had other plans. By 3:00 a.m Allyson purposefully wakes me up and says, "we have to go to the hospital now!" (having contractions every 3 minutes for the past hour). Our babysitter, uncle John, was spending the night in the other room so we quietly stepped out of the house and rushed to the hospital. I enjoyed having an excuse to speed in my Honda Ridgeline and we got there in no time.
We were buzzed in through the maternity entrance and were escorted to the room where we would have come to anyway a few hours later in the morning.
Things progressed quickly. Her Dr. wasn't scheduled to come in until 7:00 a.m so they called the 'on-call' Dr. and he never made it. By 3:30 she was in gown, in bed and in pain. The nurse checked and wide-eyed explained that Allyson was 7cm dialated and would not have time for her beloved epidural. Allyson was devastated and couldn't believe this was happening. I encouraged her as best I could and we braced for the following drama. Two nurses, a sleepless father and a brave mother witnessed the natural and laborious birth of Tim and Allyson Reed's first boy and third child. 10 fingers, 10 toes, healthy in every way. Praise the Lord for blessing us with yet another child.
Allyson and I were honored to dedicate him the the Lord right away. Rejoice with us, for unto us a child is born :)
Welcome home little man! May you grow in wisdom and stature and favor with your God and may you humbly pursue His righteousness.

Sodom and Gomorrah to my 2 and 3 year olds.

Wow,
I just read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to my 3 and half and 2 and a half little girls (Hannah and Lauren) out of "A Family Treasury: Classic Bible Stories". Each story's text is written on the left page while a full size painting is displayed on the right page. I dramatized the story and exchanged God's pouring buring sulfur with burning coffee so they could visualize the effect. By the end of the story I was probably more shocked than they were because I allowed the story to minister to me too. I'm posting this about an hour later and I still am awed at the drama of the whole thing. The fact that this is NOT just a sci-fi story but a true tale of what literally happened to a wicked city.

Sodom and Gomorrah
Genesis 13,18,19

Abraham and his nephew Lot separated when their flocks became too big for them to stay in the same land together. Lot chose to settle in the plain of the Jordan River, near Sodom. Sodom was a wicked city; the people who lived there did evil in the sight of God. Even so, Lot and his family moved inside of the city walls.
When the Lord visited Abraham, he said, " I will go down to Sodom and to Gomorrah, and see if the people there are truly wicked. If so, I will destroy the two cities."
Now Abraham knew that Lot lived in Sodom. He pleaded with God, saying, "If there are fifty good people there, please don't destroy the city.""For the sake of fifty, I will spare the city," said the Lord.
But Abraham was afraid that God would not find fifty good people. What if there were only forty-five? or thirty? or twenty? At last the Lord promised Abraham that he would spare the city for the sake of ten good people, but ten could not be found.
So the Lord sent angels to Sodom to warn Lot, his wife, and his daughters. Lot took the visitors into his home. The men of Sodom were so wicked that they were about to attack his guests, but the angels struck the men blind.
"If you have anyone to take with you," one angel said, "gather them and run from this city." Lot went to tell some other men, but they laughed at his warnings. "Hurry!" the angels said. "Take your wife and daughters and get out of here!" Lot hesitated, so the angels grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and daughters and led them out of Sodom. "Run to the mountains!" one angel said. "Don't look back."
Lot asked if they could go to a town nearby, and the angels agreed. "But run quickly!" When Lot reached the town, the Lord rained burning sulfur from the heavens, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. But Lot's wive looked back at Sodom, and she became a pillar of salt.------

Did you know that the same God who did that to Sodom and Gomorrah is seething with anger aching to do the same to our cities? Not only is He willing to but He will in fact do it. Our days on earth are numbered. Christ is gathering those who will humble themselves under His Lordship and everyone else will melt amidst a lake of scorching sulfur. How many righteous men and women will He find to spare from your town? To him who has ears, let him hear.