Lydia Lynn's Birth Story

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"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

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Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

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How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

Psalm 127:3-5

We have been so blessed. We are so thankful for our 3 children and know that they all came from the hands of God. Through each of my pregnancies I have learned more and more how much childbearing is completely out of my control. I have zero control over how and when the Lord will choose to bless us with a child and zero control over the sex of the child and zero control over how and when they will choose to leave my womb and enter this world. All the control is in the Lord's hands and I am so thankful for that because His plans are ALWAYS better than my plans. After all He is the Lord and our Creator and He loves each and every one of us more than we can even imagine. 

God used this pregnancy with Lydia to help me feel His personal love towards me. As you may know we had to have a c-section with Joshua because of his breech presentation (butt first instead of head first). I was devastated and continued to struggle with emotional healing over this reality well into this pregnancy. We found out at the beginning of my third trimester with Lydia that she too was breech. All of my hopes and dreams of having a natural delivery after a c-section (VBAC) went down the drain. I was so devastated at this news and questioned what God was doing. After all we planned to temporarily live in Arizona so we could have a VBAC since no one in our area in Colorado would do one within a 4 hour drive. Why would God completely tear down our plans? 

The morning I was headed to the doctor to schedule an external version (when they manually try to flip the baby from outside my belly) God worked a miracle and completely blessed us. Lydia turned all by herself about an hour before the appt. I felt her moving differently and wondered what she was doing and it wasn't till my Dr. told us she was head down that I realized what God had done that morning. He blessed us so greatly and not because of anything we had done or deserved but simply because He wanted to show me His love that morning and bless me like crazy! I am so thankful for this!

We had about 1 month to go for her to stay head down and for us to anticipate another natural delivery (p.s. natural here does not mean pain medication free... I was asking for my epidural on the couch at our house before we even got to the hospital!).

On Tuesday night April 30th (3 days overdue) I began having some sporadic contractions but when I was moving around they were fairly close together. Since I was induced with Amelia and c-section with Josh I still wasn't quite sure if this was the real thing. I waited it out a few hours and they never subsided so Adam and I headed in. I was only 2 cm and 70% effaced... not enough to stay. They sent us home. I kept wondering how long I would have to survive these contractions if they weren't even doing anything! All day Wednesday they pretty much subsided with a few here and there and they picked up again that evening but it didn't feel much different from the night before so we continued to wait it out. In the meantime I tried to keep upright and walking as much as I could tolerate in the 100 degree weather out here!

Then came Thursday (5 days overdue). We headed to a splash pad/marketplace area to walk around and we ate lunch at Paradise Bakery... I picked out my favorite that I haven't had all pregnancy... Southwestern Chicken Cesear Salad : ) I was having the same contractions all day and they seemed like they were starting to pick up around lunchtime but we just kept on moving. We drove home and around 3 my mom and I decided to make a trip to Target to pick up some last minute things. I wanted to keep walking as my contractions were starting to get stronger and lasting longer and more frequent. By the time we checked out at Target at 4 my contractions were 2 mins. apart and lasting a good minute long. I decided to go home and lay down and see if they subsided. They did a little bit but not enough to convince me we'd be home all night. I got up after an hour and immediately they started coming every 2 mins. again. I called and described what was happening and they said to come in. 7 PM we were in the car headed to the hospital... little did we know only 4 1/2 hours later we'd be meeting our little Lydia : ) My contractions on the drive were so painful and I wondered how soon I could get my epidural : ) with a daunting thought of 7 PM... shift change. I knew what that meant!

We got to the hospital and sure enough it took about 30 mins. for them to get the triage room and the staff ready for us... good thing Lydia wasn't ready to come out then! We went to triage and I was 4 cm so they decided to admit us... yipee! We finally got into our delivery room and I got my epidural about 9 PM. I love love love epidurals! Aside from the fact that I started having a contraction right as the anesthesiologist placed the needle in my spine and I was forced to sit perfectly still through a contraction... but a few minutes later pure relief : ) We laid down, relaxed and watched the basketball game. About 10:15 PM they came in to break my water to help speed up labor since I had been contracting for 2 days and they wanted to help things along since I was a VBAC. About 10:45 PM I had this intense urge to push so I called the nurse and she checked me and said... "yep, let's get ready for delivery, I'll call the Dr.". Adam and I were beaming... this was happening so much faster than Amelia!!! Dr. Donnelly came at 11:15 PM and set everything up. She got me ready and showed me that our baby's head was right there... you could already see her hair... what??? I didn't even do anything yet to get her there, this is so easy! We got ready to push and sure enough... 16 minutes later and she was out! I pushed for 1 1/2 hours with Amelia (granted she was face up which is a much bigger circumference to push out than the normal face down). I was so intent on pushing for a long time that our Dr. had to tell me to relax and breathe multiple times after her head was out so she could pull her out the rest of the way... I had no idea she was already out : ) Now remember we did not know what sex this baby was which was so much fun. After our Dr. got her shoulder out and the rest of her she laid her on my belly and I quickly asked "what are you???" and Adam said "a girl!"... and my response was "I knew it!" : ) Either way we were so thrilled to have a healthy baby and a wonderfully amazing and beautiful and quick and safe delivery!

We feel so blessed and are so thankful to the Lord for His gift of our precious Lydia Lynn.

So thankful to actually get to hold my beautiful baby and experience this... it definitely beats not being able to move on the operating table!

8 lbs 6 oz... biggest one yet! She was 5 days overdue : )

Daddy got to cut the umbilical cord : )

Proud daddy!

 Thank you Dr. Donnelly... Scottsdale VBAC Queen!

Tribute to Small Group

Adam and I have been so blessed with the small group we found at our church Mission Community Church (mission68.org). We discovered this small group in June of last summer but they were taking a break for the summertime and meeting back up the week before Amelia was due : ) The small group is called "New and Expecting Parents" so we knew it would be perfect for us! We went to study that week before Amelia was born to meet everyone not knowing how many weeks would pass after Amelia was born before we would make it back to the study. About 1 week after Amelia was born we got an e-mail that the group had set up a website for everyone to sign up to bring us meals!!!! What?!?! We hardly even know you people!!! And so it came... meal after meal and a chance to get to know these future friends just a little bit better. We have been weekly going to the small group since and this group has made all the difference in making Arizona feel more like a home to us. Here are some pictures from different get togethers we've had in the last few months.

Swimming Pool BBQ for my birthday

Anna, Charity and Josiah

Night swimming!

Kristy and Josiah night swimming

Drying off : )

Charity and Anna after chocolate ice cream cake!

Millie at the zoo : )

Anna knows the best part of the zoo... kettle corn!

Millie and Penny : )

BBQ with the Smiths : )

Playing in the sand! Josiah, Anna, Charity and Iliana

Hank and Tank ... haha!

Karson and Brandon soooo cute!

Laura and Penny poolside

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Top Row: Denise, Maddy, Matt, Brandon, Christine, Karson, Troy, Kristy, Allen, Jared

Bottom Row: Adam, Andrea, Amelia, Lindsey, Hank, Heidi, Thorin, David, Silas, Iliana, Laura, Penny, Anna and Darla!

The Legacy Study Bible

Adam and I finally got around to engraving our Legacy Study Bible we bought from Hank Hanegraaff himself when he came to a local church in Colorado Springs for one of his Q & A sessions. We paid our 5 bucks and engraved it to say "The Jardon Family Bible". We hope this bible will be in our family for generations and generations (unless the Lord decides to come back before then). It's an awesome bible in the NKJV with plenty of room in the margins for you to leave your reading legacy of notes. Can you imagine having a bible from your Great-Great-Grandparents with all the notes and highlights from their day? I hope this will be a blessing for our family! The guy at Family Christian took the book back and started to engrave it. When he finished he came out all flushed saying he didn't know it was autographed by Hank himself and when he saw his autograph he started "sweating bullets" trying to make sure to not mess up the engraving! It was hilarious and we thought he did an awesome job!! P.S. Here is Hank Hanegraaff's website if you have any inkling of learning about him and his ministry "The Bible Answer Man" http://www.equip.org/

Peace That Surpasses All Understanding

This past week has nonetheless been a very interesting one for the Jardon's household. Adam had the great blessing of playing in the Gateway Tour Sponsorship event on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was an opportunity to win a free tour spot for the Spring series. We had been praying that if it was God's will He would allow Adam to win the tournament so we could be on the Gateway Tour at no cost (which it normally costs $10,000!!). Adam played excellently but did not win the event. He had a great experience playing and definitely left Wednesday afternoon excited about having had the opportunity and feeling closer than ever to exploding with his golf game. He has been working with a golf coach (Craig) who he met at Alta Mesa and Craig has been such an encouragement to Adam with his golf swing and spiritually and mentally. That very night after the tournament he got a call from his supervisor who told him they were "letting him go" from Alta Mesa. This has been a work in the making for a little while now. It has been difficult for Adam and I to organize our work schedules so one of us is always home to be with Amelia. This has posed some difficulties at Alta Mesa for their scheduling and has also created some tension when Adam goes out to work on his golf game on his days off and is not working for them. It seems like this loss of his job is coming at the worse time... he just met Craig and they were doing lessons at Alta Mesa and Adam really feels close to where he needs to be with golf to play on a professional level and he just lost his home course to play at. It seems like we should be angry and bitter and "stressed out" because none of this makes sense... BUT we do not. We feel so much peace about where we are at. Both of us felt an unusual sense of relief with this happening. While it doesn't make sense we have been fervently praying that God would do whatever He needs to in order to direct us closer to the path He has laid out for Adam to play professionally. We understand that these prayers may lead to some sacrifices but we are willing and desperate to be where God wants us to be. We can sit down and come up with plans in our minds of what we think would be best but the reality is WE HAVE NO IDEA. We haven't the slightest clue where to begin or how any of this is going to work out. But I know God has the plan all figured out already and it's just a matter of His timing and us getting out of the way so He can put all the pieces together for us. As I was praying this morning God led me to this verse:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

This is it! This completely explains the "unusual sense of release" we felt with this situation. We HAVE this peace that transcends all understanding. We thank God for what He is doing. We are excited for where He's going to lead us next! And we ask for you to join us in praying for the next step. We cannot wait to share with you what all is going to happen! May God be glorified!

Future PGA Tour Professional... and this is the cart he will buy with his first earnings!!

One spot still available for his head shot at the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida : ) He looks like a natural fit!!

There Is A God

The other night while I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep I finally brought Amelia into bed with me to try to get her to sleep a little better as she had been so restless all night. She finally fell asleep in my arms laying against my chest. I was wide awake at this point (roughly 4 AM) and I was looking down just watching her sleep on me. As I was watching her I was so overwhelmed at the wonder of this created being I was holding in my arms. I just cannot believe that she's real sometimes. And I cannot believe she was created by God inside of me! What a miracle it truly is! God has made pregnancy and the creation of his beings such an incredible thing. The fact that a placenta develops with an umbilical cord that brings life to a growing baby inside a woman's belly without the woman needing to do anything and the fact that a baby develops perfectly with all its organs functioning and knowing what to do the minute the baby leaves the warmth of the womb and enters this cold bright world, it all just facinates me. If I ever struggled believing there was a God I definitely don't anymore. To me there is just no way that the growth and development of a human being just accidentally happened. It is clear there is a Creator behind it. It's just too perfect for an accident... too perfect for chance. And God cannot be mocked. This is evidence of His greatness and His glory and His love for His people. I am so incredibly thankful that He has blessed Adam and I with the experience of pregnancy and childbirth and now watching our beautiful daughter grow and develop... just the way God intended.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13

God using my womb as the location of His craftmanship


The end result of 9 months of God's perfection

Thinking about all of this reminds me of this song by Lee Ann Womack called "There Is A God". I tried to find it to add to my playlist but I couldn't : ( so you can sing it to your own tune!

Try and put your arms around the 100 year old tree
Climb up on a horse and let it run full speed
Take a look down at the world from 30,000 feet on your next flight
Watch a flock of birds against the morning sun
Close your eyes and listen to the river run
Catch a firefly in your hand or a raindrop on your tongue

Chorus: There is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?

Plant a seed and see what comes out of the ground
Find the heartbeat on your baby's ultrasound
In a few years hear it laughing, and don't it sound like a song?
Stop and think about what you don't understand
Things like life and love and how the world began
Hear the doctor say he can't explain it, but the cancer is gone

Chorus: There is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?

Bridge: Science says it's all just circumstance
Like this whole worlds just an accident
But if you want to shoot that theory down,
Look around Just look around

There is a God
There is a God
There is a God,
How much proof do you need?

In God's Hands

It seems like since the second pink line on our pregnancy test appeared last Tuesday my worry over our new baby started immediately. Is the wine cooler I had the week before going to cause birth defects? Do the cramps I feel mean I'm having a miscariage, or ectopic pregnancy? Could I have possibly contracted something or anything at the hospital last month that could have hurt our baby? Ahhhh! All the thoughts could drive me nuts. But that first night last week I was laying down to bed and God overwhelmed me with the freeing truth that He loves this baby more than I ever can and will be able to and not only that but He created this baby, in His image and everything... everything God does is for good. If He has a different path for this baby than what would be deemed "normal" than He has a reason and plan that will bring Him more glory. If I had to pick someone to trust my baby with, somone who I could sit back and relax knowing our precious child is in their hands there is noone else, not even close that I would choose than knowing our baby is in the hands of God. God, the creator of the universe and everything in it, the most powerful being, the one incapable of breaking promises and completely capable of blessing us in ways we do not deserve... why would I even worry for a second? So, does my worry stop here? Of course not... but each time a thought comes into my mind I just quickly remind myself of who God is and what His promises are and I can continue to rest in peace.