Bauer Mark Smith

          As many of you know, I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. My oldest sister was due with our first grandkid/nephew next Tuesday October 13th. She started having contraction Tuesday night,. My original plan was to fly out Friday night or Saturday morning to go to AZ. After she started having contractions, I moved my plans up to Thursday morning. This required me to drive to Birmingham Wednesday night. So, after school yesterday, I drove five hours to Birmingham, AL. There I stayed with one of my good friends overnight. He was kind enough to offer me a place to stay for the night, and a trip to the airport the next morning. I flew out of Birmingham airport at seven-thirty. Made a connection in Dallas. Flew from there to Austin. Made another connection at Austin. Flew from there to El Paso. I stayed on the plane in El Paso, and was finally able to land in Phoenix at 1:30 local time. 8 hours after I left Birmingham. It was a long day. However, since I was flying standby, it cost me absolutely nothing. My Uncle works for Southwest, and was able to get me free tickets. He is awesome like that. Kayce during all this was having a baby. She started into major contractions later Wednesday night. I was discussing this with my friend and his wife in Birmingham, and his wife, who is a recent mother as well, brought up an excellent verse that encouraged her when she was in labor, Hebrews 12:2. "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. " (ESV) She was likening labor to the cross that mothers must face, but the joy set before them, the future life with their child, made the pain of the birth completely and utterly worth accomplishing. Finally, late Wednesday night after several excruciating contractions, Kayce was given an epidural and caught a few hours sleep. She was finally was able to deliver Bauer at around 12:10 a.m. AZ time. Both mom and baby, and everyone else involved(grandmas, great-grandmas, etc.) were completely exhausted. I heard of all of this Thursday morning around the time I was leaving Birmingham airport.
         Even after a full day of traveling, which encompassed four flights through five cities and eight hours of travel, the length and exhaustion of the trip was completely worth it. When I got to the hospital, I got to meet Bauer Mark Smith, my new nephew for the first time. He is amazingly awesome. He doesn't cry, and he is one of the best looking less than day year olds ever. Most kids look like aliens that first twenty four hours. While I am slightly biased, I definitely don't see that in him. He is nice, and cute, and normal looking. It was so cool holding him for the first time. The Lord is truly incredible. Here is this brand new life, with his own personality, and looks. (He is a pleasant mixture of mom and dad, with tims face and mouth, but Kayce's eyes) Here is this brand new human being, who is alive because of the power of Christ on the cross. He is a child of the covenant, and the first member of a brand new generation. Words can't describe how cool that is. My prayer is that he will  Anyways, it is late in SC, which means I am tired. It's only 8:30 here. I am going to try and stay up till 10 local time to make a quicker adjustment to the time zone here. Thank you again Jesus for your gift of grace and mercy, and how you allow things like child birth to be so trying. "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5 (ESV) This verse is a focus on the positive aspects of suffering, and applies very specifically to what Christian women experience in child birth. I can not imagine that pain you ladies must suffer for such and incredible result, but the resulting endurance, character, and hope are well worth the experience. I can't wait to see Bauer's influence on this world, and how the suffering him mother underwent, increases her already abundant supply of the afore mentioned characteristics. I am exhausted, so I will wish you all a good night.





In Christ,
              Kyle