Baby's Liam's First Christmas!

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

Liam's Birth Story

The time had finally come to meet our son who we had waited, hoped and prayed so long for.
Here is the run down of his birth story. Thankfully, I was able to have the natural and unmedicated birth I had prayed for. While I did have pitocin to initiate contractions and get the labor process going, the Lord never gave me more "pain" than I could bear. I like to call it a lot of "pressure'! All in all it was the most long awaited beautiful 26 hour experience I have ever had with a healthy and precious gift from the Lord at the end.

Liam's birth

11/28

  1:18 am -water broke 

  1:24 am -call midwife

  2:30 am- arrive at hospital

10:25 am - pitocin started 

  3:15 pm- 2cm -2

  8:20 pm- 4cm -2 secondary amniotic sac broke 

  8:22pm -"real" contractions have started 

  9:55pm -6cm -1

11:05pm -8cm -1

11/29 

 12:03 am- 1st push! But was a test run to see what happens 9 1/2 cm  0

   1:30 am 91/2cm

   2:30 am pushing for real

   2:57 am healthy baby boy!!!! 

Welcome to the World Wil"liam" Marlyn Chambliss IV!

Born November 29, 2012
9 pound 4 ounces & 22 1/4 inches long

November

November was long awaited and the best month of the year by far! The countdown to Liam's birthday had begun. His changing table was on back order and was finally delivered to our house on his due date, the 21st! So we were able to have his nursery complete and ready for his arrival! 

Thanksgiving day came and we were able to drive to Montgomery (4 days past due) to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family one last time before Liam made his grand entrance! We were so thankful to spend the day with family. After a sweet day of celebrating November birthdays (mine and my moms) and family time spent we headed home literally about to pop! Will and I talked on the way home about how we felt like we had made all the check marks on the list of things we hoped to complete before his arrival.  While I was past my due date we knew in our hearts he would enter this world when he was ready and we were ready to meet him!

The following Monday, we met with our midwife and made a tentative plan for induction exactly a week from the day. We were not excited about this thought...so we prayed and walked A LOT! Wednesday came of that week and so did a full moon....

It's Shower Time!

We had our first shower this past Saturday in my hometown and it was incredible! 

BIG THANKS to:

my amazing Aunt "Boog"

gracious and giving Gran

and of course my sweet Mom 

for all the time and effort they put into making it such a hit! 

From the countless hours of trial and error woopie pies, the delicious orange dream whip, cute cut out palmento cheese sandwhiches, delicous buffalo chicken dip, yummy carrot cake cupcakes, to the orange yogurt pretzels and cheese straws! Oh, and did I mention the tea punch?! As Will would say, "Oh girl, that's good!" 

My aunt (who hosted it) worked so hard cleaning and preparing and pulled it off without a hitch and it was fabulous!! 

We are so thankful to all who came and showered 

Liam with love!

Fall into the Gap

So I really have no excuse for my terrible post updating skills other than the fact that all we have at home is an ipad for internet and lets just say it's quite awesome for the normal everyday surfing but not when it comes to supporting blogger! However, I did just find out that all I need to do is download googlechrome to support it. You learn something new everyday and you should anyway! Well here goes my attempt at sneakin' into Will's office for a second to fill in the gap of lost time! Speaking of fall...like my post title!? I think if you are a Gap clothing line fan you will appreciate it and if you know me you know that I do LOVE the Gap! They have the best jeans. It's been tough, I feel like I've missed two seasons of fashion that my pregnant body refuses to fit in! Oh well, there's always spring...but my baby sure is rackin up thanks to my in laws! But fall is my favorite time of the year and it's beginning to feel like it outside and I'm chompin' at the bits to pick a pumpkin! P.S. if you're looking for a good fall candle scent for your home try "Autumn" by Bath and Body Works...it just gives you that fall feeling! There's so much symbolism in the changing of seasons. Will just returned from a mens conference at Snowbird in Andrews, North Carolina and really came home rejuvenated with a newfound appreciation for the gospel and some good wisdom and insight to offer our family. I'm so excited to see his leadership as a father. I know he is going to wow me...he already does. I've just got to step up to the plate! I've really been growing from him and he challenged me to get into something myself (which I really need right now). So this week I began Beth Moore's study through Galations called "Living Beyond Yourself". I've learned so much already this week and it's been so neat how the Lord has aligned what I'm studying personally with the series our church is on currently as well as what Will is learning in his personal time. He is reading "The Explicit Gospel" by Matt Chandler. I've mentioned this before but I can't get enough of God moments and his divine providence. It makes me kick myself and say why am I not experiencing this every single day?? I deprive myself of experiencing this in exchange for the business and sometimes just simple mundaneness of life and miss out on so much nourishment and growth. Isn't it funny how we're always either coming into a season, in the middle of one or coming out of one!? Since our last post, we have seen our way out of a very uncertain grey season with our son and into a new joyful one! We're studying joy right now at church so it's on my mind. We have seen first hand the miraculous healing hand of Jesus at work in my womb. At 25 weeks we were told and saw with our own eyes that we have a healthy baby boy on the way with no signs of fluid anywhere in his little body...Praise be to God! According to the specialist we have been seeing, from her standpoint, it truly is a miracle and it gave us such a peace to hear that. When Will and I first met her and she found out that Will was the student pastor at Calvary she let us know that her and her family attend Calvary as well and would be praying for us. Since then we have been able to see her every Sunday worship the same God we believe in through this trying time and we felt the Lord's comfort and power in that. I'm so thankful the Lord kept my spirits lifted and faith strong in the midst of it all when I could have so easily fallen into that gap of despair and hopelessness. Again, we can't thank all of you enough who lifted Liam up to the Lord in prayer and I pray you will continue to keep us in your prayers. The Lord hears the prayers of his people and for that we are eternally grateful. I am now 31 weeks today and going strong (moving a little slow at times)...just ask Will he loves to talk about how funny I am now. I walked a nice 2 miles yesterday evening in the sweet fall weather at Idle Hour Park with the hubs. I just love strolls in the park...can't wait to do that with our little one. That's all I could think about as we walked and the occasional side cramp from being out of shape...its just been way too hot this summer but I'm determined to get back into the groove! Prenatal Pilates workouts on youtube have been the fill in for the summer and have really helped me prepare for childbirth. Our first baby shower is THIS Saturday in my hometown...which actually happens to be the first day of fall! Hopefully, I can sneak in here again next week and post pics of it and the nursery progress...the changing of seasons happens slowly usually ya know?!

Uncertain Grey...

So it's been quite a while since our last post on Will's trip to Orphanage Emmanuel and much has happened in our lives over the past few weeks. The following Thursday after Will's return home we went for our 20 week appt to check up on Liam. We had a long ultrasound due to all the measurements they take at this point to make sure he's growing properly and all seemed well. After the ultrasound, we sat down and waited for a consult with our midwife, Julie. As Will and I waited for the door to open our minds were overloaded and our hearts heavy. Not concerned about the baby so much as we had no reason to be at this point, but really how much we were trying to control everything and eachother. More so the expectations we had for ourselves as parents and as individuals were burdening us and our relationship. There was so much to communicate and work through. We were overwhelmed and at a loss at how to deal with all the things we were feeling as we sat in silence waiting for the door to open. The moment finally came and Julie rushed in like a whirlwind. Her words were, "Brittany, everything looks great with him, BUT there is fluid on his chest and abdomen that should not be there and I want you to go now and get this seen about." We appreciated her urgency after the fact, but in that moment we were in complete shock. What more did we need on our plate to be overwhelmed about right now? We headed out to the car and I began to fall apart. Why? Why? I kept asking myself. Will didn't know what to say...he just had his hand on me the whole way trying to comfort me the only way he knew how at the moment. We got to the Maternal fetal care unit and our baby was diagnosed with ascites (fluid on the abdomen) and hydrops (fluid on the chest with skin edema). So we have had very heavy hearts over the past few weeks along with our family, but have been in awe at the prayers warriors, so many of whom we don't even know lifting our sweet Liam up to the Lord and calling him by name. Since our initial diagnosis we have been seen twice a week by a high risk specialist, Dr. Hill, who we learned attends our church and has been very thorough with us and is doing everything she can to figure out the cause of this. We have seen a pediatric cardiologist who says Liam's heart is beautiful and doesn't need to see us again...Praise the Lord. All my bloodwork has returned negative for numerous genetic disorders and infections. Rh blood factor is not an issue. We were sent to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital for an MRI and the results came back negative for everything even the fluid and edema, however, it is still showing on the ultrasound. We saw Dr. Hill Monday and she was very pleased with how things looked and that it seems to have somewhat resolved in the abdomen. The fluid on the chest does not seem to be effecting his lung development and so other than a miraculous we are thanking the Lord for the healing we have seen and for his goodness. We are now going on 24 weeks and his progression will be checked once a week from here on out. Liam is certainly living up to the meaning of his name. He is always moving, and so strong. We can't thank you all enough for your faithful prayers for our family during through this and ask that you please continue as we are not out of the woods yet. Over the past weeks we have watched and felt the Lord work in us by removing our controlling grip, lifting our burden of expectation and placing our focus ON Him and trust IN Him who is sovereign and in control of ALL things. We realize this is so far out of our control. What were we thinking trying to figure things out on our own? It was like the Lord was shouting, "Hey! Why don't you try asking me? You're leaving me out of all this and I'm the one that got you where you are in the first place. You can't do all of this on your own." But now that we have relinquished all of this to Him which is a daily effort we have been given this  peace that really and truly surpasses all understanding. All we can say is it's God. We are moved by the realization that our sweet son is already being used by God in our lives and in the lives of others as well and that is all we can possibly ask for. After much debate we have since picked out a shade of grey for Liam's nursery called "uncertain grey". We found the name coincidental but more so the providence of God that we can tie in the color of his nursery to what we are going through with him and realize that through the uncertainty He has made us, "CONFIDENT of this, that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until then day of Christ Jesus." How sweet the father's love for us.

Honduras Mission Trip

The team!

Teaching the Word!

Working in the wood shop!

         

Hangin' out with some students!

Diggin' a ditch for a tilapia farm project!

Will and his Dad cutting pig meat with some students from Emmanuel!