Time to catch up...it has been a while!

Our baby boy, Israel Jackson, was born June 6, 2009 and he is such a blessing from the Lord. He weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 21 inches long. I had to be induced which I was not happy about because I was planning to go the all natural route. But the doctor said my fluids were too low and so I was induced. I made it to 8 cm without any pain relievers but the nurse told me it could be another 3-4 more hours before I was ready to push....so, I caved and had the epidural. In the end, I was glad that I got the epidural. The pushing was really intense even with the epidural b/c I was not completely numb. I had back labor but overall I had a really smooth delivery.

Now, 3 months later, I am absolutely loving being a mommy. The last time I weighed and measured him he was 17 lbs and 25 1/2 inches long. He is definitely a BIG boy. He started off having a pretty difficult time latching on and getting the hang of nursing but around the 5th day he finally figured it out. This was a loooong 5 days for mommy and daddy!! But obviously, he now has the eating thing down pat. I am still exclusively nursing and plan to introduce solids as late as I possibly can. He is in cloth diapers so the longer I wait on solids the easier it will be for me as far as washing his dipes.

Israel is doing all sorts of things. He makes the funniest faces and cutest sounds.....he cracks me up!! He rolled over for the 1st time starting right at 2 months (from belly to back), and starting doing it every day at 2 1/2 months.

The Lord has blessed us so much by giving me the opportunity to stay at home and raise Israel. Being a stay at home mommy has been a desire of mine for the long time and something I have prayed about long before Israel came along. It is definitely answered prayer b/c there was a time where we definitely needed the second income. Jeremiah has been blessed with plenty of work, even in this down economy. It is awesome b/c he even gets days where he doesn't work and gets to spend the day at home with Israel and I. Other days, he has to work very long hours but we are amazed at how the Lord has provided for our needs.

Well, this is it for now.....I will try and keep this up to date from now on as I would like to keep track of Israel's growth and development. God bless to whoever may come across this blog!!

27 weeks

Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant. I have been having a fairly easy pregnancy so far, with the exception of the back pain I was experiencing last month but that only lasted for a couple of weeks. The baby is moving more vigorously and he has recently started getting the hiccups. I love to sit on the couch and watch my belly move. I don't know if I already wrote this on the blog but we have decided to name him Israel Jackson. Israel means "governed by God" or "God prevails" and Jackson means "son of Jack"....haha, I just like the way Jackson sounds! I cannot wait to see what he looks like and to get to know everything about him. I feel so blessed to be able to carry a child in my belly....it is such a miracle:) I will post my 25 weeks belly picture.

My sister-in-law, Claudia, is throwing me a shower on April 18th so that will be a lot of fun!!

20 weeks and it's a BOY!

We found out last Thursday that we are having a BOY! I was in shock but so excited because I was secretly hoping for a boy! Jeremiah and my grandparents went with us to the ultrasound. It was very special. We plan to name him Israel Jackson. I have been feeling the baby move for over a month now but it just gets stronger every week. Last week Jeremiah was able to feel the baby move too! He said, "Now that was cool!"

In other news, as some friends of ours and youth group leaders plan to move to Lexington, Kentucky......we will become the new youth group leaders! We are pretty excited about the opportunity to minister to the youth of Calvary Chapel.

The pics I posted are of the baby's last ultrasound and a pic of my growing belly from a few weeks ago!!

15 weeks pregnant

I am 15 weeks pregnant. My next appointment is December 22nd and my next ultrasound is January 8th. The ultrasound is to check for different diseases but we will get to find out the sex if he/she cooperates!! I am not showing yet, just a little pooch. No one could tell I am pregnant unless they already knew it. I have been feeling very very faint baby movements. I can only feel it when I lay down really still. I will try and post a pic of the baby from the 12 week ultrasound.

Baby Hurt....coming in June:)

Well, we are expecting our first little one!! I am a little over 12 weeks along and I got to hear the heartbeat today. It was the coolest thing and was helpful in reassuring me that all of this is real. Tomorrow I go in to have my first ultrasound done so I am super excited about that. I can't wait to see this little one. Today the doctor said she is setting my due date for June 2, 2008 but depending on the ultrasound the date could change. It is pretty exciting because my uncle Gary's birthday is June 3 so maybe he or she will be born on his birthday?!

I am so thankful to God for giving us this gift of life and pray He will give us wisdom in raising this little one for His glory!!

Home Sweet Home

Beautiful Indiana skies!
Home Again and so blessed:)

We have been home for a little over a month now. It is good to be home and we were so shocked by the beauty of Indiana. We just can't get over the big blue open skies and the green foilage everywhere. Folks, we are so blessed to live in the community we live in! At times our trip to Peru seems like a dream considering how easily we transitioned back into the American culture. But we know it was NOT a dream and not something we will forget!

Jeremiah has a job working for Biddle construction and I am staying on the homefront :) for the time being. Once school starts I plan to do substitute teaching for one of the school districts.

Nevertheless, we have been very busy. The Lord has opened many doors to serve in our community and it has been awesome to see others who have the same heart. We are heading up a 3-0n-3 tournament ministry at Lincoln Park every Thursday this summer. Before the tournament begins Jeremiah shares something brief with them, then they all pray together. Jeremiah has asked some other guys if they would like to share in the future so that will be cool if that happens. There have been others from our church and even other churches who have come down to help and try and build relationships with the kids that come down there.

For the strawberry festival, Jeremiah's brother, Caleb, designed and ordered 5,000 tracts to hand out at the festival. A group of us met at Chapel Books and went down to the Festival each night to hand out the tracts. It was a lot of fun! On the front it had strawberry facts and on the back was the gospel message. Also, a group from our church and Liberty Chapel came together and learned and performed the drama we did on our mission trips in Peru. It was really awesome because we were able to get a spot on the main stage with little notice. It was very impactful, people from our church were saying that there were a lot of people in the audience that were crying.

Just last night a group of us went to the Ladoga Academy and held an evening "church-type" service. Caleb and Jeremiah did worship and then myself, Emily, and Nina shared our testimonies and how the Lord brought us to Him. Praise the Lord because the doors have been completely opened to us there. A man from our church has a part-time job there and Emily has been doing a Tuesday study that I will be helping her with starting tomorrow. I am pretty excited about this opportunity. These girls have unimaginable family lives and only Jesus can heal their hearts, cleanse them, and transform their lives. I am just praying the Lord might use us to help lead them to Him.

We have been praying for a revival in Crawfordsville and it has been encouraging to see that God wants to work here with the way doors are just flying open. I want to encourage any believer that might read this to reach out to others, step out of your comfort zone and share your faith. There is a great joy that comes from the Lord when you are obedient to His leading. For that person that might read this that has not given their heart to Jesus and committed to serve Him, I encourage you to do so, it is something you will never regret. He has a plan for each of our lives but we first have to come to Him!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us while we were in Peru, it was such a comfort to know we had people praying for us! If you receive this blog through your e-mail, it is the last time you will receive it. I am deleting the feed but I plan to blog every now and again, so if you want to read my blog you will have to go to the following address http://www.adventureswithjesus.blogspot.com/

God bless,
Serah

Heading home:)

These past 3 weeks have gone by so quickly and I can't believe we will be home in only 4 days!

A couple of weekends ago, the church we attend, the english church, had everyone over to their house. It was a nice time of fellowship. They had a stage set up for anyone who wanted to sing karaoke or share a song. The church is mostly young people so there were a lot of people dancing and acting silly, it was a good laugh! The church is in english because the pastor and his wife realized their were a lot of Peruvians that want to improve their english, so many start out coming for this reason and then later give their lives to the Lord. The church is young but we have seen growth in the short time we have been here. It has been a blessing to this church grow:)

Last week, Jeremiah was really sick, we think it may have been food related but he is better now. This week, we have been packing and cleaning our apartment to prepare to leave this place we have called home for the past four months. We feel so blessed and comforted to know that the Lord has already gone before us to provide us a place to live. It makes it so much easier knowing he already has everything mapped out for us and we don't have to worry about things like jobs or anything else we might need. God is so faithful even when we are not.

We want to thank all of you that have prayed for us while we have been in Peru. We feel so blessed by our families and our church family and cannot wait to see all of you. This has been an awesome time growing and learning from the Lord and also growing as a young married couple. We are so thankful that the Lord gave us the opportunity to see with our own eyes that He is working all the way in South America, and therefore, ALL over the world. His love truly has no bounds.....no culture, no language, no people is untouched by Him. It is an amazing thing to think about, God is everywhere, ALL of the time!

The pics are of us with some friends and the other is of all the bible college students saying good-bye to the church in Lima.

Love,

Serah & Jeremiah

P.S. If you think about it, please pray for safe travels and that our flights would be on schedule:)