Praise the Lord...

Carrie and I would like to Praise the Lord for the safe delivery of a very healthy and very vocal son! We are so blessed to be surrounded in love by our family and church family during this very special time!

My parents, Bruce and Darla Briggs, were with us from 5:00 AM until almost 3:00 PM yesterday and have been a tremendous source of support throughout this entire beginning of the process! My brother Karsten and his wife Kim have been awesome with phone calls and text messages of support and encouragement. Additionally, we have heard from members of both sides of the family and extended family, from my siblings to Carrie's cousins and Grandparents, throughout this entire process. Incidentally, this is the first Great-Grandchild for Grandma Ottis! :) I know that the Ireland family is thrilled about the safe delivery of Josiah, especially Louisa...I should know since she is getting regular "status checks" for me.

On the way to the hospital yesterday, I called Pastor Greg's house (7:30 AM) to let them know that we were in labor and on the way to the hospital. Laurie asked us to text message her phone if we had Josiah sometime during church so Pastor Greg could make an announcement. Well, she got the text immediately prior to him getting up to speak and from what we heard, our church family was extremely excited for us and Pastor Greg had to tell them to settle down since he wasn't done yet with the details. :) We have been so blessed by the phone calls, text messages and visits. Rodney, Stacy and Nathaniel Mitchell came by last night to visit and the new family photo was actually taken by Rodney on his "crackberry" (Nora's terminology). Many others called yesterday and were a tremendous source of encouragement and love! For that, we are extremely grateful!

Today, we were blessed by visits from Pastor Greg and Laurie, Stacy and Christina and the Lowery family. Incidentally, "little" Paul Lowery is a GIANT in comparison to Josiah.

For everything, visits to phone calls to text messages to your prayers (which we covet), we are so incredibly grateful to our families both immediate and church.