Oh the Joy in my heart!

Two days ago I started having bad cramps and pain, I ignored it for a while but by 7pm I was really uncomfortable and beginning to worry. So we did what any paranoid parent :) would do, we headed off to the Emergency Room. I was terrified, at first I couldn't stop crying, thinking that something was wrong with the baby, and then I just felt numb and I was trying to prepare myself for whatever was about to come.
At the ER the dr. seemed like he was really new or something. He seemed terrified about having to deal with a pregnant woman, he told me that what I was experiencing was not normal at all. And then he gave me tylenol and told me to see an OBGYN in the morning. We went home, but neither of us slept on Monday night. On Tuesday we went in to see our new Dr.

He checked me out, and then he said he wanted to check the baby too. He did a full, long scan. When he put the probe to my belly I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut. I was terrified that there would be bad news waiting for us. But when the picture popped onto the screen so did our bouncy baby. The baby was facing away from us, but it turned it's little head, and then seemed to look right at us. (Probably annoyed at being bothered!)
I started crying like a fool, the doctor kept checking and measuring while tears spilled down my cheeks soaking the pillow (sorry dr!). The doctor announced that everything with the baby looks absolutely normal.
We even got to see tiny little toes, that I cannot wait to kiss, and at one point I could see lips. The cutest little perfect mouth. With Asthma meds I was terrified of a cleft palate as this is a side effect of the medication. But the baby is fine.

Then nonchalantly the dr says: It's a boy. A boy. Did you catch that? We are having a boy! A son! I am going to be the mother of a little boy! Cue the tears and giggling for me and the chest puffery for David.  I have never seen him look that proud or that in love. I kept soaking the pillow, David kept sticking his chest out further and further, and the dr. looked sleepy. It was a perfect moment that I will never forget!

And.

We have decided to name our baby boy Reese Livingstone Echols. Reese (means "enthusiastic") after a one of the most influential and godly men we know, Mr. Gareth Reese one of our professors at CCCB. And Livingstone based on 1 Peter 2:5:

"You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ"

Also it doesn't hurt that David Livingstone was a missionary who loved Africa more than anything, or anyone, else. Just ask David about the meaning of our son's name and how it goes with our last name, and you will get to see some of that chest puffing!

I thought that I would carry the wound of infertility with me forever, but after hearing that I am carrying a healthy and beautiful son, I can feel the wound healing. God is good and His gifts are lavished upon us! 

Also go over to our website and see what David has been working on :)

p.s I do have some kind of infection that I am taking medicine for now, the dr. thinks that is what caused the ER scare. But we caught it early and it is no big deal now.