We had our 16 week appointment yesterday. All is well. Got to hear the heartbeat again, and the little guy or girl kicked the microphone while we were listening. Quite the violent kid.
We also scheduled our 20 week ultrasound, so in a few weeks, we’ll know whether it’s a boy or girl!
I’m a little late in posting this, but here’s the most recent picture of our crazy little baby. It was squirming all over the place while we were there.
I can’t believe the change in the last month! It’s officially starting to feel more real. Seeing the baby move around on the screen was wild.
All is progressing well so far. Thanks for the prayers, everyone!
We’re very excited to introduce you to the newest addition to the Young family!
Marie is about six weeks and five days along as of today. Right now, they are guessing the due date is January 9, 2011.
For those of you who are interested, here’s how all this was unfolded to us.
So Marie has been patiently waiting for me to be “ready” for us to expand our family for a while…
Okay, maybe it’s been like two years.
Anyway…
You may have read on here that a few months ago I started taking some semi-regular trips to a local monastery to give myself a day to refocus and recharge so I’m ready to go the rest of the time. Well, I had one such visit on May 1, 2010. While I was there, God and I had a little chat, and he basically said, “What are you waiting for?”
I didn’t have a good answer anymore.
So I decided it was time.
On my way home that day, I stopped at a bookstore and bought two books: 100 Answers to 100 Questions About Being a Great Dad and 100 Answers to 100 Questions About Being a Great Mom. Marie was gone when I arrived home, so I wrapped them up and planned to give them to her when she got back.
When she walked in, I told her that I had a gift for her and had her sit down. She unwrapped the gift and gave me a huge look of shock. “Does this mean what I think it means?” “Yes, yes it does.”
Needless to say, she was a little excited.
The timing was perfect because unbeknownst to both of us, Marie was already pregnant.
Fast forward to the following week, Marie had been feeling a bit “queezy” in the evenings for several days, and so she had a hunch something might be up. She took a pregnancy test, and she thought it was negative, but she wasn’t sure.
The next Friday came, and I was at the Chick-fil-A LeaderCast with my buddy James over at UC’s main campus. We were listening to some great leaders speak from a satellite location, along with about 100 other sites. They had encouraged everyone to bring their laptops and tweet and whatnot during the event, so I had brought mine along and was doing so.
That night, our good friend, Ron, and his fiancée were coming over to talk about some wedding details with us. So Marie was going to be at home getting things ready there. When I left in the morning, everything was pretty much done though.
While I was at the LeaderCast, Marie had left me a couple of messages on my cell asking “are you coming home early?” and “what time are you coming home?” saying that she needed some help with the house. Every time I tried to call her, she didn’t pick up. Something fishy was going on.
So a little over an hour before the event was over, I was tweeting away listening to some neurosurgeon speak or something, and I had gmail open, and I saw Marie’s name flash up for a chat on gmail. Through the power of Google, I have the actual chat transcript (man, I’m a huge nerd).
Marie: are you able to talk?
me: for a second
Marie: R u coming home soon?
me: we get out of here after 4pm. why?
Marie: I just need some help.
me: you know I’m at UC, right?
Marie: yeah.
me: it will probably be after 5pm when I get home
Marie: so you’ll be home around 5ish?
me: should be
Marie: ok, that should be fine. I’m just trying to get everything done, daddy.
me: say what? are you serious?
Marie: yep, just left the doctor.
me: are you freaking kidding me?
Marie: December 14th our little boy or girl will be here. I wanted to tell you in person but can’t wait. yeah. I have my first ultra sound in 2weeks. are you excited?
[2 minute pause from me while I'm high fiving James in the middle of a room of hundreds of people]
me: uh yes! I’m just a little surprised right now.
Marie: yeah. I’ve cried and laughed in the doctors office. I’m 4 to 8 weeks. they aren’t sure but the ultrasound will tell us for sure.
me: uh. I’m just a little beside myself right now.
Marie: I know me too.
So I found out that I’m going to be a dad through gmail chat. How appropriate.
While I was gone that day, Marie had decided to go get another pregnancy test, only this time she decided to get one that just said “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant” so there was no confusion. As you can see, it came up “Pregnant,” so she decided to head to the doctor to make sure.
They gave her another test there, and it showed positive too. So they said, “yup, you’re pregnant all right” and started giving her all the info on what would unfold over the next nine months of our life. Marie said she didn’t really remember anything between the time they said, “you’re pregnant” and when they said, “happy Mother’s day” on the way out, which really threw her for a loop.
Yes, all this happened on Mother’s Day weekend, which also seemed oddly appropriate. So here’s how we decided to break the news to our parents.
We bought both of our moms the same card. On the front, it had a cartoon of two people raising their hands and said:
“I’d like to make a motion to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.”
“I second that motion.”
On the inside, we made it read:
“Happy Mother’s Day from both all three of us.”
We went out on Saturday night and gave them each the cards and said that we found a really funny one, but they had to read it out loud or it wouldn’t be funny.
So Marie’s mom read the outside, opened it, and looked up in shock without reading it out loud, so Marie’s dad had no idea what was going on. She must have set there for a good two to three minutes in total shock, but eventually she got it out.
At my parents’ house, my mom read it out loud, and then she got all teary-eyed and whatnot. Surprised all of them for the most part.
So there you have it. Josh and Marie are having a baby.
Now you can all stop asking us when we’re going to have kids. :)
Can’t wait to see how this turns out! Ready or not!
Just reread this article from Jim Collins. If your life is busy (and most of us can relate), then you should take a minute to read this.
Devotional Thoughts, Leadership, Ministry, Personal, Productivity
So life has been crazy lately, for a lot of different reasons. Several weeks ago, I decided that I needed to take a weekend away from everything and get by myself and spend some time alone with God. One of the spiritual disciplines that I have royally sucked at over the last 10-12 years is sabbath. I just have a hard time slowing down and spending time being still and quiet.
So that was my goal with this past weekend. I was talking with my buddy, Mike, a couple of weeks ago trying to find a place that was fairly close that I could stay for a couple of days and reprioritize things in my life and refocus and renew myself. He asked, “Have you considered a monastery?” To which I replied, “Um…no.” I mean, why in the world would I consider hanging out at a monastery? Do I look like a monk to you?
To clarify, Mike pointed me to a blog post written by Brian Jones that I had missed not too long before this discussion (interesting timing). Take a couple of minutes and read his post if you can. It’s well worth it. Basically, for the last 12 years, he’s taken one day each month at a monastery and followed a certain schedule that he’s come up with. 7:00am until 5:00pm. Perfect for rest and refocus.
After I read his post, my first thought was, “This is exactly what I had in mind!” His schedule outlined everything I wanted to do in detail. From that moment, I tried to find a place close by that I could go do this. I planned to spend the night my first time so that I could take an entire day/night to do this.
I did some internet searches, and I found a monastery not 20 miles from me in Northern Kentucky that seemed like it would be a good fit. I sent some e-mails to the director of their “Spiritual Life Center” and figured out the details. For a low price, I was going to go early on Saturday, eat lunch and dinner there, spend the night and have breakfast before I left late in the morning on Sunday. I would get a simple room with a small bed, desk and chair. No distractions. They have the perfect setup for personal retreats like this.
So, armed with a couple of books, my Bible, a pen and paper, and a few basic essentials, I headed to the monastery Saturday morning to spend the weekend with the nuns (and yes, “monastery” is the correct term for where nuns live). Here’s a summary of what I did, using Brian Jones’ schedule as a loose guide.
8:00am
Arrived at monastery. Found my contact for the weekend who showed my to my room and a few basic things, including their labyrinth. Not being Catholic, and not understanding it, I pretty much dismissed the labyrinth discussion.
8:30-9:00am
Brain dump. I wrote down every single thing in my mind. To-do lists, struggles, worries, general thoughts, and anything else that would distract me for the day. I tend to do a fairly good job of capturing tasks, etc. on a regular basis since I’m a task list freak, but this is always a good exercise. I had our Creative Team do this before we started on our 2010 Creative Summit, and it was really beneficial then as well.
9:00-9:45am
Being too cold to take a walk outside, I (trying to keep an open mind) decided to give the labyrinth a whirl. I went in the room, read some of the info laying there about it, and tried to do what Brian suggested when he goes on his walk outside: not to talk to God, but just to listen. I have to admit that at first I felt a little weird walking around a giant room on a piece of sail canvas in my socks by myself at a monastery, but once I got past that, it was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. I can honestly say that God spoke to me more clearly while walking out of that labyrinth than he has in my entire life. He really convicted me about some things and gave me some insight into some things that I’m going through right now that were pretty big revelations to me. I made sure to write it all down, as I was carrying my list from earlier with me to capture all my thoughts.
9:45am-12:30pm
Since one of the main things I have been thinking about and struggling with lately is my personal time with God and how to make that work better in my life specific to me personally, Mike had loaned me the book, Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels. He told me this book literally changed his life, and he doesn’t just say that, so I thought it would be a good place to start. I had read a couple of chapters prior to this past weekend, so I decided to pick up where I left off. I completely finished the book before lunch, taking copious notes.
Mike was right. Not that anything in this book was completely revolutionary or new, but it has literally changed how I spend time with God every day since I finished it. It has given me a much more practical, concrete way to spend time with God each day, and I’m extremely grateful that God led Hybels to write that book. I felt like he wrote it just for me. I won’t go into the details here (read the book!), but a couple practical things that I pulled from the book and have implemented are journaling and writing out my prayers. They work for me. And the “ACTS” model for prayer (which I had heard before, but not in this amount of detail) really struck a chord with me. I’m organized and ordered, and this seems to work perfectly for me. Also, it has shown me the importance of just sitting and listening so that God actually has a chance to speak to me.
Bottom line: great book. Read it as soon as you can, especially if you’re busy and have a hard time slowing down, like me.
12:30-1:30pm
Ate lunch, and then one of the nuns showed me around the place a bit more. Brian was right when he described their food as “plain but plentiful.” That’s exactly what it was! After I ate, I was shown around the monastery. We saw the chapel, she showed me some of the other personal retreat rooms, a couple of rooms that show all their history through the years, their meeting rooms, and some of the paths outside. And then she laid the big one on me. 
She said, “Did you ever see the movie, Rain Man?” “Of course. Not in several years, but yes.” “Well, this is where they filmed part of it.” It turns out I was staying at the “Wallbrook Institute” where Dustin Hoffman’s character resided at the beginning of the movie. The scene where they’re walking down the long drive lined by big trees, that was there. Unfortunately, the trees (over 100 years old I’m told) became diseased a couple of years ago and had to all be cut down. They do have a table made completely from those trees in their lobby though. She showed me the front of the building where Charlie drove the car, the meeting room where Charlie was questioned, and all the other interesting places in the movie. Who knew.
1:30-2:30pm
Took a nap. Man, Brian was right about this one. Just what I needed.
2:30-3:30pm
Went through the list of “refocusing questions” that Brian posted. These were extremely helpful to me. Here’s the list.
10 QUESTIONS TO REFOCUS YOUR LIFE by Bob Biehl
- What is my single greatest strength? (What do I “do” the best?)
- What three decisions are causing me the greatest stress?
- What is overwhelming me?
- What impassable roadblock has me stuck?
- If I could only do three things before I die, what would I want to do?
- What should I resign from or drop out of? (Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things.”)
- What can I postpone?
- What things on my “to do” list can someone else do at least 80% as well?
- What are the “elephants” in my schedule? (Pareto said, “If you’re Noah, and your ark is about to sink, look for the elephants first.”)
- What are the three things I could do in the next 90 days to make a 50% difference?
3:30-4:00pm
Went for a walk. That list made my head hurt.
4:00-5:00pm
Put what I read in Hybels’ book into practice. I journaled about “yesterday” (see the book for more info), wrote out my prayer using the “ACTS” model, got on my knees and prayed it out loud, and then sat in silence listening to God. Most beneficial hour of my entire weekend. This was the beginning. I have now done this every morning since starting.
5:00-5:40pm
Caught up on my New Thru 30 reading. Spent my time in the gospel of John.
5:40-6:00pm
Had dinner.
6:00-8:00pm
Finished the entire book of John.
7:30-8:30pm
By this point, the silence was pretty deafening. Not only was I in a very quiet place, but there were only three people staying on the floor I was on in the East Wing, and they were part of a Korean Catholic group that took a vow of silence for the weekend. Needless to say, it was very quiet. I knew I would need some noise at some point in the weekend, so I had loaded up my iPod with a few sermons and brought it along. 
I spent this time listening to Steven Furtick’s message from a couple of years ago in his “Confessions of a Pastor” series called “I Struggle With the Same Sins Over and Over Again.” Super message. Seemed to be just what God wanted to tell me that night.
I had literally witnessed an entire day of God speaking to me like he had never spoken to me before. It was utterly amazing. There is a lot of wisdom in the practice modeled by Jesus in Mark 1:35 where it says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Jesus knew the value of being in a quiet place with his Father to pray and to listen. He did it often. And for most of us, we don’t. Ever. One of the best things we can do is get back to that.
The rest of the night, I listened to a little music and read some more, and then dozed off for the night. The next morning, I woke up refreshed and renewed. I spent some quiet time that morning journaling, praying and listening like the day before (seriously, read this book…this stuff doesn’t take that much time and it will change your life), and ended up leaving early enough to actually go sit in a seat at ACC to worship (instead of being on stage for a change).
Overall, it was the most beneficial weekend I can ever remember. I’m making plans to set aside a day every month or two do go do this. I can already see how valuable it has been to me, and I know if I keep it up (like Brian has), it will absolutely change my attitude, my marriage, my ministry, and every aspect of my life.
This weekend, like the labyrinth I walked, showed me that sometimes the most helpful tools in our lives can be the ones that we least expect or initially dismiss because they’re “different” than what we’re used to. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need.
Marie and I went bowling last night for the first time in like 5 years.
We were the only ones there who were not in a league. It was a bit scary.
Couldn’t stop thinking of Jim Gaffigan the entire time. Almost every joke of his came to life.
“You can do it. We’re praying for you.”
My buddy, Aron Kirk, and I have been talking about our personal time with God recently, and yesterday he challenged me to join him in starting a Bible reading plan that Elevation Church developed called New Thru 30. It takes you through the entire New Testament in 30 days.
I thought about it for a little bit, and I couldn’t think of a reason not to, so I officially started this morning. 12 chapters of Matthew. Such good stuff. For some reason, I’m seeing things in a completely new light than when I’d last read these verses. Life is different every time I read it, I guess. There were a couple of things I was really convicted about. Overall, it was just what I needed.
Aron and I have also talked a bit about fitness and just generally taking care of ourselves for a while, and he said that he also set the goal to work out more days than he doesn’t and asked if I wanted to join him on that too. Of course, I did. I need to get back in the groove of things and not let myself slip since finishing P90X last year. A couple of extra pounds have already managed to slip themselves in over the last couple of months. It’s great to have accountability when you’re going through something like this.
I’m looking forward to making it through the whole New Testament over the month of February and getting back in the habit of taking care of myself physically as well as spiritually. The goal of this month for me is to refocus things and make sure I’m on track to go through 2010 with my priorities in order. I am even planning an interesting weekend in a few days that I’ll fill you all in on later.
If you’re interested in joining Aron and I in going through the New Testament, you can read more about it on the New Thru 30 website.
Thinking of literally completely deleting my Facebook account. Can anyone think of a good reason why I shouldn’t? Seriously?
So, now that the holidays are over and life is starting to get “back to normal,” I’m finding a push for motivation in areas where motivation has been lacking lately. There are things I’ve been wanting to set goals for, but just haven’t done it yet. I know what I need to do, but I’m letting life get in the way.
It’s easy to get beat down with life happening. It’s easy to say that I’ll start tomorrow. It’s easy to just push it to the side. But the right thing to do is to start right now. The right thing to do is to write it down. The right thing to do is to make sure I have accountability with it. The right thing is to just do it. No excuses.
Anybody else struggling with this mess?
Any suggestions?
Here are 10 things that I learned while going through P90X.
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