Our God is in Control

I put together the slideshow below of Mclaine's birth and subsequent stay in the NICU and then homecoming last week. The slideshow is set to a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, "Our God is in Control", that really helped Maria and I through the fear, frustration, and faith building time while Mclaine was in the NICU and we were away from Maxwell and Miller. If you have or ever do find yourself in a crisis, our prayer is the words to this song will help you through that time, but more importantly that you turn to the Lord Jesus...He is the only way we made it through.

Our New Arrival...a little delayed

On Tuesday, August 17, we welcomed Mclaine Elliott Upton into the world. He weighed 9 lbs. 7 oz. and was 22 1/2 inches long. Maria had a great delivery, but Mclaine had aspirated meconium in utero and was ultimately flown to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Scott & White in Temple, Texas where he spent the last 3 weeks.

If you want to read details of our 3 weeks in the NICU, go to our CaringBridge site at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mclaineupton, enter your email address and a password of your choice. Needless to say, this has been a trial of a magnitude we have never experienced before...but as of today (September 8) we are all home together in College Station!

Losing it!

After a few tears, we finally convinced Maxwell that tonight was the night his first tooth needed to come out. We've tried the "you'll get money" route, but that didn't seem to work. We tried the "your big teeth are already coming in (they are--see the picture on the right and you can see his adult tooth already growing in) and if you don't pull this tooth we are going to have to let the dentist pull it" route...that didn't work either. We tried getting him to eat raw carrots, an apple, anything to help loosen that tooth (actually both of his bottom two teeth in the middle)--all to no avail. Tonight though, it was just hanging on by a little bit and after trying 2-3 times, I finally got it to come out. It wasn't that it was hard to pull it, but when you have a 6 year old wrapping both hands around your wrists and pulling them away every time you even touch his teeth, it does increase the difficulty factor!

He quickly got over the tears though...until we both thought that I had dropped his tooth down the drain. I quickly stopped the water in the sink, thinking that I could take the pipe below apart to try to find the tooth if necessary. Thankfully though, it had landed on the bathroom counter and was safe.

I am a self-admitted sap, so I'm not going to conceal the fact that I got a little teary eyed at this milestone. It really has nothing to do with losing a tooth though and everything to do with the realization that we only have them for a brief moment in time. I made sure I loved on Maxwell a little longer tonight when I put him down--I know these moments will be gone before we know it.

Water popping and a simple prayer

As we await the arrival of our newest family member, the boys continue to keep us laughing. Yesterday at lunch, out of the blue, Maxwell said, "Mommy, has your water popped?" After we regained our composure, Maria told him that when her water breaks, it will look like someone sprayed her with a water hose. Without hesitation, he got up from his seat beside her and moved to stand by me. It took a few minutes, but we finally convinced him that if her water broke it would not "spray" him...and he finally sat back down beside her.

Miller has been running a fever at night for the last few days and he has a mild rash on his skin so in talking to the pediatric nurse, she told us that if we had the baby while he still has the rash, he can have no contact with the baby. We obviously want him to be able to hold the baby when she/he comes, so we started praying that he would get better. While putting him down for bed last night, when Maria finished praying he asked her if he could pray. She of course said yes and here was his prayer:
"Dear Jesus, help Miller feel better, help Miller's fever go away, help Miller's rash go away...and help bubba not be selfish."

It was all Maria could do not to laugh out loud.

I WILL rejoice!

Our friend Larry (the patriarch of the famous Brown family who the Lord sent to us as friends over 11 years ago) recently sent us an email saying that the meaning of , "This is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it" had shifted for him from being a statement, to more of a declaration with emphasis on "I WILL rejoice and be glad in it..." as a matter of choice, so to speak. Then a couple of weeks later, Maxwell went to Vacation Bible School at a local church and one song they sang really stood out for us because of what Larry shared with us. Here is a video of Maxwell (and sometimes Miller) singing a song for Mr. Larry--hope this is an encouragement to you Larry--we love you and your family!

NOTE: I realize that this post is a little different than usual as it is specifically written to a friend of ours, but is also part of me documenting our family history through the years.

I read it mommy, I read 'da book!

This story is one that won't be special for everyone, but I just couldn't resist posting it. This one is for our friends, the Browns, whose youngest son is coming to A&M in the fall and will be on the tennis team.

A couple of days ago, Maria was reading books to the boys before bed and realized their fingernails needed to be clipped. While she clipped Miller's fingernails, she gave the book to Maxwell to read and when it was Maxwell's turn, Miller told her he wanted to "read 'da book, too, mommy" so she gave him the book to read.

He then opened the book and "read":
"Jesus, help Daniel play tennis. Amen."

Followed by:
"I read it mommy, I read 'da book!"

Yes, Miller, you did read it...even if it was your own story!

The flood and the rainbow

Last week, we had the unfortunate experience of having the boiler valve on our 50 gallon hot water heater pop off and flood our family and laundry rooms. Keep in mind that my dear, sweet wife is 8 months pregnant (9 months this week--here we come August 10!) and it just so happened that every neighbor was gone at the time so she had to wait for me to drive from campus to our home at 80 mph. Thankfully we have a home warranty since we just moved in and what they don't cover, our homeowner's insurance covers (all of the water damage). After 5 days with fans blowing in our home, they removed the fans and dehumidifier this morning and now we can move forward with getting new carpet, the walls painted, and back into that room (where we spend most of our time together).

A great reminder occurred the same night after the water removal crew finished up and we went to eat dinner. While we were eating we looked out the window and saw the following (thanks to the Weirich family for taking this great picture)

Not one, but two rainbows to remind us that the our heavenly Father is a promise keeper and that He is with us even in the flood!

NOTE: We learned through this process that the boiler valve on most newer hot water heaters is now made out of plastic which, in the opinion of our plumber, is not a smart move. We actually have two hot water heaters, the one that blew is in the garage, but the other one is in the attic. We had the plastic valve on the attic one replaced today for $85--much better than the $1,000 deductible for our insurance! You might want to check your hot water heater out though...unless you want to swim in your house :)