Thoughts

Nikon D40

2008-06-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was just noticing my last post was from a snowy get-away and today it is aproaching high 90's and the AC isnt working right now here in downingtown.

For my birthday my fam bought me a new digital SLR camera, a Nikon D40, after my old Minolta 35mm camera was having way too many issues.

So now I am excited to get back into some quality photography. I am digging the camera so far. Looking forward to capturing all the fun at the summer events.

Here are a few shots recently!

Afternoon at the Strattons.

Ellie and Namo after Gardening

RiRi directing the crazy kids race at the Monk Run in Springfield last night.

Stick battle.

Stowe VT

2008-03-24T17:59:00.001-07:00

In early February Katie and I took our first long get-away from our little one on an anniversary trip up to Stowe Vermont to do some skiing, enjoying nature, enjoying one another and checking out the town. It was an absolutely beautiful place and I would definitely recommend the trip!

We made the drive up in our little Civic despite the snowy conditions. Considering how much it snowed while we were there the car did pretty good!

The first two nights we stayed in a gorgeous bed and breakfast, fit out with a jacuzzi tub and a double sided fireplace. This was definitely on the very top list of nicest places I have ever stayed.

We were hoping for a snowy get-away and Vermont pulled through. The first night I think it snowed 8" and then the night after that it snowed 11" and kept on going all day. We had well over 24" of fallen snow in the few days we were there!

We did some great Tobogganing together down the hill behind the B&B, took plenty of advantage of the kitchen stocked with snacks for us and their movie arsenal.

We took a little snowshoeing adventure. As you can see the snow was kind of packed down already, so we didnt really need them, but it was fun anyway! We did feel embarrassed at one point when a girl came jogging by us with sneakers on ;) , but we were encouraged when we saw a number of other people out there with their snowshoes!

Skiing was fantastic. I have never skied in powder like that. If you fall its like you are getting carried away by a big fluffy cloud .. a cold big fluffy cloud that shoves snow down your pants. Anyway we had a blast. We ate lunch at the lodge on top of the mountain, skied some great trails and took in the beautiful scenery.

We were definitely ready to come home to our beautiful baby girl, and felt like she had doubled in size and advanced a few years already.

Here is Katie on the mountain. Yes she has ski's on, but you cant see them under the great powder!

Big fluffy piles of snow to jump on!

Here is a picture of one of our favorite trails that winded through the snowy trees.

A beautiful little river running through town.

A buried bench in the park that we went snowshoeing in.

On top of the Mountain!

Its been way too long huh?

2008-03-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well .. I was checking over a few friends blogs tonight and decided it was way overdue for an LaBriola update. Katie is hanging out with Toni Davis tonight and I just put the little one to bed and felt inspired.

Way to much has happened in the last 5 or 6 months since we last posted!

1. I changed job locations from Wilmington, DE to Exton, PA (same company). A good and welcomed move for me.
2. In light of that we put our house up on the market and moved in with my parents in Downingtown, PA until we sell our house and find a new one despite the scary housing market.
3. We also started going to Grace Community Church meeting in Newtown Square.

So that is about enough life stuff change for me for the next 5 years or so .. except selling our house and buying a new one of course.

We are enjoying life living with my parents. They are about the easiest most flexible people ever to live with. I haven't felt once that I was invading space or cramping their style. Since day one they have been overly flexible and excited to have us. That may or may not have anything to do with the fact that they get to see Ellie all the time. ;) Anyway they are a huge blessing from God in this time when we aren't sure of what is going to happen with the house.

Here are some updated pics of Ellie!

This one is back at Christmas in her little stocking dress with Aunt Laury (my sister). She wasnt much of a present opener this year, but loved tissue paper!

She loves to go, "bye-byes". We call her our little adventurer. Always is excited to go out the door, but of course needs to bring all her stuff with her if she goes. ;) She is such a girly girl the way she carries her little purse too. That of course does not stop her from playing in the dirt.

She is starting to talk up a storm. Its really amazing how quickly God allows thier little minds to learn. Right now she is learning almost a new word every day it seems!

What are you doing to me Dad!

Beautiful Baby!

Fun with Pop-Pop.

Fun in the Park on Easter Day!

Look Mom I learned how to take off my pajamas for you!

Sorry for the fast forward update, but wanted to get some pics up here for you. Would love to hear from you!

- Steve (Katie & Ellie)

Ellie B-Day!

2007-10-25T19:44:00.001-07:00

Well we celebrated Ellie's 1st B-Day this past weekend and today. I cant believe the year went by so quickly! Here are a couple pictures & videos to recap! The first two pictures are from this weekend with the LaBriola's. Then the next three and videos are from tonight with the Kellers!

Ellie took a big handful of sugary icing and started crying! Not sure if she will be a sweets kind of girl.

Once she found that there was cake under that icing she had no problems about digging in!

She got a little radio-flyer walker that she loves pushing around and getting in!

She again started to cry when we gave her this big cake to dig into.

But once we just gave her a piece, she was loving it! Check out the videos!

Ellie - The super cute crawler

2007-10-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here is Ellie doing a little crawl segment.

Coming soon: Ellie's first steps! - Steve

Not Ashamed to Call Us Brothers

2007-10-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

Steve and I have recently been meditating on what it means to be "in Christ". One "ID" passage that I came across today is in Hebrews where the author states "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers"(2:11). Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers! This amazes me the more I try to wrap my mind around it. To make things harder on myself ;), I went to Col. 1:15-20 to more fully contemplate Who I am calling "Brother"....

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

Just soaking in one of these descriptions of Jesus leaves me in awe. And to think, that we can relate to Him as a brother. What He did for us in His death and resurrection carries that much power.
-So there you have it... A snip it into what's been swirling around in our brains lately.

Blue

2007-10-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

We forgot to share with you all about our recent trip to New York! It was quite an experience. We are such foreigners to city life. Our jaws were dropping open at least 3/4th of the time (well, mine was. Steve's alittle more "city savvy"). Some of the jaw dropping events included: staff at the information desk at the train station who were more confused than we were on which trains went to New York; a young fellow, presumably high on something who kept dropping things and asking me if his stop was coming up???, and a bazaar art festival parading down Broadway... I'll leave it at that. But despite all our wayward adventures we did arrive at our destination; The Blue Man Group. It was a great show and very funny. Steve was thinking of quitting engineering to join the show. What do you think? Could he pull off the blue man look? :)

The Road Goes Ever On..

2007-10-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

This well known poem is so telling of our life right now. There has been so much change and growth in our lives over the past so months. There is something about following God that is so mysterious and exciting and wild and beautiful all at the same time. Mysterious because most of the time I can only see the very next step and no further; Exciting because there are always such amazing things in store; Wild and scary because as we follow Him, He will stretch us beyond what we think capable and bearable and sensible; and finally beautiful because that is always the result: Him known and loved and seen all the more. So along the way I find myself lost in any one of these emotions. Sometimes smiling at the unknown and sometimes in tears about it. But in all of it, God remains unchanged, with determination, drawing us on in Him. It's a crazy love we know. -Katie

Ode to the Fruitfly

2007-10-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the recent infestation of fruitflies, my kitchen has been scrubbed more thoroughly than ever before. Yet somehow those little scavengers have survived. Help! Does anyone know how to kill off the little buggers. There's something unappetizing about sharing my food with them....

Video 2

2007-08-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Speaking of video's .. we went the the pool today and got some footage of Ellie showing off her swimming skills!

Videos!

2007-08-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I definitally need to get down with the times and start putting some little video clips up here! Here are some silly practice ones to get this ball rolling:

Ellie Update!

2007-07-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well. It has been way too long. So here are some updates!

Little El-belle turned 9 months yesterday and is getting cuter by the second. She is pulling her self up all the time, crawling all over the place, waving goodbye to us, making more and more sounds and the best of all is that she playing with us a lot. She loves playing peek-a-boo and chasing us around the house! Just tonight I was crawling around and hiding around corners and when she caught up to me crawling she would giggle and laugh in delight.

She is also very close to standing / taking some first steps. She has let go of support and stood for a second or two. Here comes the craziness of Ellie moving and grooving! And we really are seeing the need for some more serious baby proofing!

As you can see from a few of these pictures a few teeth (toofies as we affectionately call them) are coming in, hasn't been too bad for her. Shes has had a few nights of fussiness while they were breaking through.

We took her to the beach this summer and she loves the sand and water. She would eat fistfull's of sand and go back for more! Katie also took a mommy & baby swim class where she loved to kick and swim in the pool. She did have a little occurrence while in the pool during one class where she forced everyone to exit the pool when she let a little brown log out of her swim diaper. ;)

Speaking of that, she also had her first artistic expression with the contents of the diaper. Katie found Ellie one day and she had taken off her diaper and attempted to paint everything in sight. Our cute little fledgling painter!

She is still a great little sleeper. She goes down around 7:30pm and she usually wakes up around 7:00am and plays in her crib for a little while until we come in. And she gets so excited!

As you can see from this next picture she is also exploring new food groups as she is able to chew a little bit! She pretty much loves eating and will eat as long as we keep on giving her food. It may be one of her callings in life. Professional eater.

Until next time! - Steve, Katie & Ellie

Tag, I'm it!

2007-06-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

Julie has "tagged" me. I find this somewhat amusing to be apart of a bloggers game since I don't consider myself a real blogger (not yet at least). But now, I kinda feel more included in the blogging world so maybe that will give me a boost of motivation. Thanks Jul! I too will ignore rule number 2 because of my lack of blogging buddies :) Here goes:
Here's the game:
1.People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
2.At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
3.You may need to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Things:
1) I played rugby in college. Steve also played rugby and we first became friends on this common ground.
2) Since having a baby, I cry when watching nature shows and the baby animals are eaten by predators.
3) We like to hike in beautiful places. Got any suggestions?
4) My favorite kind of food is Thai.
5) Leeches help coagulate the blood. And regardless of modern medicine, doctors still use them on thier cancer patients.
6) The Yucutan Penninsula is set on top of a giant underwater cave.
7) Make trade fair is a great website that promotes fair trade awareness and action. (shameless plug)
8) And last but not least, a random fact about Delaware, where we currently reside. When fishing in most delaware waters, you can safely consume only one fish per year. hmmm...

Riss Riss! you are it!

Negligent Bloggers

2007-06-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yes that's us... we have been seriously neglecting our blog and we apologize to our few faithful readers. This past month has been pretty full and we have been meaning to post some updates of our resent adventures... coming soon! But until we come up with a more substantial post, I will leave you with some random snipits of our life.... I am reading The Great Gatsby: a tragic but accurate depiction of life in the "Roaring 20's" and Steve is reading God's Lavish Grace (which I read as well and enjoyed thoroughly). Ellie's favorite read is The Going to Bed Book, a gift from her Mimom. In other news, Steve and I played a high spirited game of Scrabble last night which entailed illiterate dictionaries and scrabble pieces flying through the air.... I'll leave it at that ;) More to come.

Another Ellie Update

2007-04-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Our little girl will be 6 months old tomorrow! So in commemoration I am doing a little update.

Ms. Ellie is developing her own personality. She is squealing, screaming, laughing, talking in response to us.

She is sitting up on her own, (she cant get to the sitting position on her own yet though). Its so cute to see her sitting! (see pic) She is grabbing at everything in sight and if possible putting it her mouth. Its like a little exploration tool, anything that she see's and grabs must pass the slobber test.

Waking her up is a special treat of mine. After I read and eat in the morning I go into her room where she is usually turned on her back and talking to herself. But as soon as she hears the door squeak open and sees me (or Katie) she gets so excited, smiles and kicks her legs! How precious!

She is becoming more mobile, though not crawling yet. We find her in the opposite direction in her crib and watch her scoot in circles, but no real progressive movement. She is quite the wiggle worm though; on the changing table she will arch her back so that she can grab the box of wipes behind her head! She also loves scooting around in her walker (see top pic.)

We dressed up all girly like for the first time on easter (see pic). She was quite the little doll.

This past weekend Mi-mom and Pop-pop (Katies parents) came over. And Pop-pop was rubbing the top of his head on Ellies belly and Ellie would start grabbing his hair really tight, try to put her mouth on his hair and start letting out little monster like screams. We werent sure if she was freaking out, or having fun! ;)

We feel so blessed by God to have this little one in our lives to enjoy and look forward to all the stages to come. I can start to understand God's love for His children as I spend time with our little one.

I also feel so blessed to have a wonderful wife who cares for our little Ellie so well. As I am out working, she is thinking / planning / reading on how to care for her better and better. Reading up on all the best things do give her and do for her, and always thinking about how to love her more and more.

Thanks for reading. More updates to come!

Philly Rocks!

2007-03-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Katie and I just got back from a trip to Philly to do a little sight-seeing and also to have the first extended getaway since little Ellie has graced us with her presence. Here are some pics from our weekend away.

On Friday we started the day with breakfast out at Friendly's. Eating breakfast out is one of those little special things for us. Then we dropped off Ellie at my parents house and off to Philly we went.

Our first stop was to head down to the Old City to brush up on our Philly history. We got to stop at Independence Hall, where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed. We also got to see the Liberty bell and where Ben Franklin lived along with the other buildings around it. We also got to see where Ben Franklin went to church, at Christ Church which is an active Episcopal church today and apparently that was the tallest building in Philly for 75 years or something! We also got to see Ben Franklin's grave. Quite a talented man looking at all the things he did. Katie was thinking that if we accomplished ONE of the things he did in his life, it would be impressive.

We then checked into the Center city courtyard Marriott and our room overlooked city hall and center city.

Then at night we went to a Cuban/Puerto Rican restaurant called Cuba Libre which was excellent and fit right in with Katie's love of the Latino culture. She said that this restaurant had the best Mohito she ever had (a mixed drink popular in south American countries) and also had the best Latino ambiance of a restaurant shes been to.

We were going to get back and hop in the pool / hot tub, but we got back and were wiped out from our day trip! So we ended up watching a little discovery channel and reading some "Silver Chair" from the Narnia series together. We are getting old. ;)

The next morning we ate breakfast in Reading Terminal Market and got some breakfast Crepe's and headed off to the Franklin Institute for a day of science and discovery. There we saw a great little film on the IMAX (which we were informed its not a normal imax which is just an over sized screen, its actually an omniverse which is a huge dome!), and lots of other fun activities.

All in all it was a great little getaway and enjoyed the time together! And we were excited to get back and see our little girl!

God Uses Leaky Pipes

2007-03-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Recently Katie and I decided that we really needed to plug into the friendships in our immendiate area more. To built the friendships with the great citizens of wilmington / claymont and those other towns nearby and be commited to fellowship here. You know, Acts, early church style. Eating together, doing life together, seeking God together. So this leads into the following story:

So on Thursday when I had two projects to get done at work that were pretty much going to get done at the last minute rush, with lots of anxiety in my heart, I get a call from my wife. She lets me know that the carpet is all wet around the baby's room and a little into the "orange" room. I start trying to figure out what happened and first my mind goes to the radiant heat. We have no basement, so we have a slab on grade and hot water pipes run through the slab to heat our house. Second I think of the outside faucet.

So in the midst of my craziness and work, getting this news only put me more into a frenzy, so I could finish up and rush home to try and figure out what happened and hopefully stop the water from drenching our carpets anymore. In the meantime I was getting short with Katie and was definitally starting to get angry / impatient.

After I got home I turned off all the water to the house and ripped a hole in the wall where the leak was and realized it was the outside faucet which I am guessing had frozen and cracked the pipe and was now leaking into the house. The best part of this is that the pipe runs IN the slab so the pipe also cracked the concrete and the only way to actually fix or get to the pipe is break the floor slab which is not too great idea when you also have radiant heat.

After the rush of the moment calmed down and I kind-of had everything under control, I realized that I had sinned against Katie when I was on the phone at work, so I needed to apologize / ask for forgiviness for that, but still we were both kind of bummed out about the whole thing, becuase we had no water. We didnt have a shut-off valve for the outside faucet so I had to turn all the water off for the whole house. We would turn it on for brief periods, put some towels over the leak and get showers real quick and fill up some pots.

Eventually God started speaking to us. Good ol' James 1: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. " I think of the big things in life when I think of this verse, but really, these small mundane trials happen a lot more, so God uses them just as much!

The next day we went Skiing with my work and just left the water off. On saturday morning Katie said, " Hey this will be a great, we can really start this whole fellowship thing we were talking about. About living life together. We can go get showers at someones house." I thought it was great how Katie was thinking about how God was using this actually as a blessing and turning our minds towards that.

Next, it was my mission to try and figure out the pipes of my house and I couldn't figure out where the pipe went down into the slab. I even drew up a AutoCAD, to scale, drawing of our house to help figure this out. I knew where the water came into the house and tried to follow it around. After putting two more holes in the walls I thought for sure that the pipe went down into the slab at a certain point where I would probably have to make a hole behind the refriderator through the tiled wall, which I really didnt want to do.

As a last resort I opened up the access panel in the closet that gives access to the pipes for the shower. And what did I find? Another pipe running off of the cold water pipe into the shower that lead down into the slab, and that pipe had a shut off valve!! So I tried it and it shut the outside faucet off! I was pretty excited, I think I did a little victory dance. I was master of my domain. I turned off the water to the outside faucet and turned back on the main water. How thankful we were for that running water that night.

Anyway, so now we dont have a front outside faucet. I will eventually cap that one and abandon it and will most likely run a whole new pipe up into the attic and down to the outside. My dad says they make new pipe that is like a glorified hose that can do that.

So the moral of that long story is. God uses trials to test us. He desires that we be people that reflect his glory and goodness and he promises to work on us until perfection, like a refiners fire. And even though we didnt get to shower at one of our neighbors houses, we were reminded that we really do need to live life with these people whom God has put in our lives.

Thanks for reading! - Steve

True Beauty

2007-02-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

A friend recently brought to my ears an update on some persecution occurring in a predominantly Islamic nation. Women who had converted to Christianity refused to wear the traditional Islamic head coverings. Some were angered by this and threw acid on these women's faces. They have truly suffered for the freedom in Christ. But their scars are a mark of true beauty. How captivating these women are to the Lovers of their souls! For though their outward appearance has been marred the beauty of their souls shines all the more bright and glorious. This is true beauty.

Good Article . . .

2007-02-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting post over at Challies.com on pornography and it's effects on children and young adults. I found this helpful because I never really thought of it in regard to children. It's incredibly sad what my daughter will have to face as she grows up. I want to be able to walk through these things with her bringing truth and light. I am thankful for this post and other resources out there that help me to prepare for what she might face. Also, after reading the article I had a deeper greatfulness to God for His redemption that he offers. The dark destructiveness of pornography doesn''t have to strip at our souls because of His presence and power in our lives. If you are interested in reading this article you can click HERE.
"..... so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the univers as you hold out the word of life..." Phil2:14-16
-Katie

Ellie Update

2007-02-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give a little update of our little girl. She is getting bigger by the second. At three months (Jan 25) she doubled her weight. If this keeps up she will be over 300 lbs by the time she turns two. Imagine the diapers.

She is cooing and smiling all over the place. Katie also mentioned that she gave her a real giggle the other day!

Another noteworthy event was that she rolled over for the first time a week or so ago! (Front to Back) She hasn't mastered the back to front roll yet.

She started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old and now sleeps 11 hours a night, what a blessing! Its amazing how getting a full nights sleep makes all the difference.

Ellies hobbies are: reading books with Mommy, sitting in the swing, sucking her thumb, trying to get the stuffed giraffe's foot in her mouth, long walks on the beach, pooping in clean diapers and playing with Daddy. (Ok, so shes never been to the beach, but I'm sure she will like it).

Ponderings from "Prince Caspian" by CS Lewis

2007-02-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Katie and I just finished reading Prince Caspian, written by CS Lewis and soaked up the story. We began the book last Thursday and couldn't help but get sucked into the story! Katie had already read the book but had forgotten most of the details. I also started reading it to Katie (but never finished) while she was in labor with Ellie to take her mind off of the pain ;)! We recommend it highly!

1) (Steve) As they were travelling up from the ruins of Cair Paravel to Aslan's How, Susan (or Queen Susan in Narnia) despite feeling the presence of Aslan's leading, preferred to follow her own preferences, resulting in steps away from thier destination.

Pondering: Do you feel God's leading? Do you feel His presence guiding you to take a step here or turn there? Do not dare to do anything but step in the path he is guiding, do not dare to take the "easy" road of your own preference. Not only will it result in possible pain or dissapointment, but you will be missing out on the joys and delights of God's plans to work through you!

2) (Katie) "For now Aslan had stopped and turned and stood facing them looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad"

Pondering: I thought this scene captured well the pull I feel in my own relationship with God... Trembling at His holiness but joyful of His love.

3) (Katie) "Aslan said, 'You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emporer on earth. Be content.' "

Pondering: I thought this was a good description of the complexity of us human beings. Being human is filled with honor for we are God's creation and unique among all creation, we are God's image bearers. That is quite an honor! And yet... we are human... bearing much shame because we'ce broken our communion with God and have brought the whole realm of creation down with us. Talk about letting down the team!

So that is some of our reflection of this fabulous book. I think it might be my (Katie's) favorite Narnia book yet. (I have not yet read all of them!)

Worldviews - By KLaBs

2007-01-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

I recently read an article in Times magazine about Intelligent Design v. Evolution. (If I knew how to link things I would make a link to the article because it's a quick and worthy read). The thing that stuck out to me most among other points is that intelligent designists hold to the belief that God and science can coexist where as, from the evolutionists perspective, a genuine belief in God compromises one's scientific researching and credibility and vice versa.... I have just deleted a paragraphs worth of rambling on this topic. I wont rewrite the article but try and stick to my reflections... What I found insightful was the difference in worldviews portrayed by the two men interviewed; one a Christian and the other an atheist. Concepts that made perfect sense to one could be considered senseless to the other based on their worldviews. Our eyes are connected to our brain and we make sense of what we see based on what we know. The same is true with our worldviews. We make sense of the world (and in this case our existence) based on what we believe about God (whether He exists or not). What I appreciated about this article was the insight it provided into the atheistic worldview. Though I am far from persuaded by the arguments presented, it has given me a better understanding of the worldview that informs the evolutionists theories.

She's Here!

2006-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

As most of you know our little Elizabeth was born on Oct 25th. Here is the email I sent out to people and a few pics!

----

Our little Ellie (Elizabeth Laury LaBriola) has finally made her big entrance into this world. She was born at 2:37am on Oct 25th weighing 7lb 1oz, 20in long. We had many twists and turns during the labor, but God brought us through!
We were originally planning on giving birth in a birth center with a mid-wife and an all natural labor. It seems things weren't meant to go that way! Around 2:00am on Oct 24th Katie's water broke which started the clock on when Ellie needed to be born safely. Around 8:00am we went to the birth center and Katie was not progressing. We went home, went for a walk & tried to get things going but to no avail, she was having no contractions. Around 2:00pm after talking with the Mid-Wife and her chats with the doctor who oversees the birth center it was best for her to be induced at the hospital. We went in around 3:30pm started Petocin to induce around 5:00pm. Labor started almost right away and being strapped to the bed, she needed to get an epidural around 7:00pm. Around 2:00am she was ready to push and after a few pushes the doctor saw that the baby's heart rate was dropping at every contraction (late deceleration) and decided it was not safe to proceed. He said C-Section was the safest way to go.

Katie was really strong, calm & collected through the whole labor, our minds were alert and hopeful and aware of Gods presence the entire time. And for those of you who know about my queasiness & fainting with medical things (for an example, I passed out when I watched my dog get a shot! ;) ), I was there for every intimate detail of the labor from the start to epidural, to pushing, to sitting in the operating room for the c-section without feeling queasy at all! - truly a miracle, so thanks for those who prayed, they were answered.
It was hard to go to the opposite extreme, but we have an extremely healthy, beautiful baby girl and Katie is healing well. The recovery and starting to care for the baby can be overwhelming at times for Katie, but overall she is in good spirits and we are feeling overwhelmed with joy at being new parents! Sometimes we cant help but smile so big & cry when we hold her! ;)
Thanks for being part of our lives! Here are some pictures of her!
- Steve (& Katie)

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting:

2006-10-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

Due date is October 29th. We have been waiting for little Ellie (Elizabeth Laury LaBriola) to grace us with her presence since October 7th. We aren't really sure whether to try and make plans just in case Ellie doesn't come or keeping everything open and planning something last minute if she doesn't come.

It's so crazy to think that our lives are going to change big time any moment. We don't even know all the ways its going to change and can hardly imagine. But we know God has given us faith for this step and that he has prepared us for this time. How amazing that another life is created, a living / feeling / conscious being knit together in Katies womb. And how scary that we are charged with the duty of raising her!

So anyway this weekend we decided to wing it, so last minute we decided to head to Linvilla Orchards which was really great. We picked up some pumpkins and got a nice fall experience. There were so many people there but it made it a big fun event.

This weekend we are trying to plan a little with a Jack-o-lantern show, Vital Life class at church and a few other small plans. Hopefully they all get cancelled because of Ellie's coming. ;)

Maybe she was waiting for us to plan something so she could interrupt it and make a grand entrance. In that case I'm planning on sleeping tonight. ;)

God Works to Perfect us:

2006-09-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

My faith in God is built as I look back and see all He does through day to day, mundane events. Currently I am noticing that God does some amazing stuff before we bring babies into this world. I guess it is up to us to wake up and smell the roses to His loving teaching or to get ready for the hard road.

It probably started when our little Ellie was just a thought in our minds as we decided to pursue having kids. "Would God give us children" Katie would cry out to God as God was urging me to point our eyes towards Him, the one who opens and closes the womb.

As we had some complications in the beginning of the pregnancy, God urged me to point our eyes towards trusting Him with all circumstances in our lives.

During the pregnancy Katie has needed to depend more and more on me for tasks such as going out and getting tylenol at 5 in the morning, picking up things she dropped when I am in the other room, cutting her toenails for her (ewww!), getting her lots of things when her belly is weighing her down.

These things seem like little insignificant, not too much effort, tasks. But in the moment often my heart says no as I would rather serve myself than to love and serve my wife. Life matters in the day to day, seemingly mundane events. God is preparing me to give of myself more than ever before.

Which is very timely because when Ellie is born I will be needing to give of myself all the more. "The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself" Galations 5:13.

May we all give of ourselves all the more as we live our lives for the Lord.