TH2: Salem, Oregon

To say that December has been a stressful month for Team Henderson II would be a dramatic understatement. Thankfully, God is totally awesome. Here’s the story:

I started my new job on Tuesday, December 1st, amid a flurry of comments from my new co-workers regarding how excited they were to “give back” all the work they had been covering while I was in the process of being hired. The adjective my new manager liked using the most when talking about my orientation schedule was “aggressive.” It’s much more engaging work then I had been doing, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind being a little busy (it is work after all). But it is stressful too, trying to learn a lot of new things in a short amount of time.

A week later, on Tuesday, December 8th, Carissa noticed a small red bump on her chin starting to develop. Turns out it was a MRSA infection. Lame. It got to be so big and so painful she had to go in on that Saturday to get it drained (padre, I will spare you any explicit details). To make matters even more stressful, the only antibiotics able to fend off this infection posed some significant risks to little Tater gestating within her womb. Super lame.

Oh, and it’s Oregon, so it’s also raining. Everyday.

So there we were, maxed out on stress, pain meds and adverse weather conditions. And yet, in the midst of the storm, I kept remembering the stories we’d been reading about in our Mark Study, accounts of people being healed by Jesus because they choose to have faith that Jesus is the Messiah. So I started to pray. In my prayers I acknowledged God’s presence in our lives and His ability to redeem the situation, and I asked Him to heal Carissa and keep Tater safe. That was the easy part.

The more difficult part is then demonstrating faith. Many of the people in Mark had to walk away from Jesus before they could know for sure their prayers had been answered. They came in faith, and they left in faith. I’ll admit that historically I’ve had trouble walking away from Jesus. I want him there to hold my hand, to reassure me every step of the way. But Jesus isn’t married to my needs; I am married to his. So we stepped on in faith: Carissa started taking the antibiotics and I bought a homeless man a muffin from Great Harvest.

Then Thursday, December 17th rolled around. By then the antibiotics had started to work and Carissa was on the mend. She had her second ultrasound scheduled for that morning, and I gladly took some time off work to be there. Over the next hour we stared at the monitor as our beautiful little Tater rolled around and posed for the photo shoot. We saw the heart beat. We saw the arms and legs move. And we saw his man parts. Yes, little Tater is officially and unequivocally a boy (see below), and a healthy and handsome dude at that, just the right size for his age. The tech said, “Your baby looks great;” and immediately the winds ceased and the storm was calm.

God be praised! Let us bless the Lord; thanks be to God! Little Ryan Daniel (that will be his name) hasn’t yet been born, but he can be well assured that God is with him. He is certainly with his parents, loving us all over the place. And so, without further ado, here he is: Ryan Daniel Henderson!