Adventures in Denver: November 2007

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Stella! :)

This past week has been quite an adventure for us. On Wednesday we went to Kim's weekly doctor's appointment, only to find out that the doctors had decided that the best thing for Kim and Stella would be to induce labor early, like the next day. So we rushed around for a few hours (thanks to Andy and Larissa for the short notice babysitting), got the t's crossed and i's dotted with the doctors, and then that evening, Kim and I went to the hospital.

Grammy (Vicki) came down from Missouri to watch Elijah. At 7:30-ish on Thursday morning, the doctor broke Kim's water. A few hours later, however, it was becoming apparent that the labor and contractions were putting more stress on Stella than she could handle, and Kim was having some issues with the effects of the epidural. So, the doctor made the decision (with Kim's consent of course) to do a C-section, and things became a blur of motion. I suddenly found myself in full scrubs sitting in the operating room next to Kim while the doctors began the operation. I have to admit that I purposely didn't look while they made the incisions, but a few minutes later, we heard a new voice crying, and Stella Naomi Kaan was born! (10:59, Nov. 15, 5 lb. 4 oz., 18 in. long) I followed the nurse to the scale and snapped this photo, a little blurry, but that is exactly how I remember it.

After all was said and done, things turned out just fine, and both Kim and Stella are doing fine. The doctors and nurses took good care of them (although the hospital cafeteria seems to think that a 'diabetic meal' means 'no seasonings').

Thank you to all the visitors who traveled to come and celebrate with us, it was fun to have so many people here (even if you all did take over our house, haha). Kim and Stella were cleared to come home today, which is really good, because Kim was starting to go a little stir crazy in her hospital room. :)
Check out the flickr bar for more photos.

Devotions

Click the link above for the Daily Devotional, daily excerpts from the book "A Day's Journey" by Pastor Jon Courson.

Selected Article from Abiding Life Ministries Intl.

Coming to a Place of Deception

By Michael Wells

James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”

Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

I am starting to believe that people are deceived because there is something in them desiring the deception. First, if Satan has the ability to deceive all men, then all men would be deceived. Obviously he does not have that kind of power. So what does he look for in a man that would allow for a deception? Satan is looking for something in the heart of man where the deception can begin. It would be impossible for Christ to deceive any person, for there is nothing in Christ that the flesh desires. True Christianity cannot deceive, for again, nothing in the flesh wants anything at all to do with Christianity.

Christianity has one message for my flesh: “Move over!” So what is it that makes man’s heart open to deception? I believe it is the desire of a heart that says, “I can be God.” Rephrased, it is the desire of the heart to be independent from God. This is why the Mormon religion is so successful; it is cleverer than the early Catholics who embraced the local gods of the people, or just gave them different names. As you know, many “Catholic” countries are rife with blends of Catholicism and witchcraft. Haiti is an example. However, the Mormons offer something more: man can actually become a god. Man can invite his wife to his celestial kingdom, where she can be eternally pregnant. This “deception” has incredible drawing power to those who have suffered under the hand of their unjust god, or who have served a god all of their lives. After all, who would not want to believe that he could become the one who hands out punishment and receives gifts from others?

Such a person is deceived with a ludicrous teaching, but moving past the cobweb to the spider, we see at the root a heart that says, “I want to be God.” Deceptions all offer the flesh something, and Christ is always taking something away from the flesh. When someone converts to Mormonism, or any of the other “-isms,” I never feel that the Mormons won one while the Christians lost one. Instead, I believe that the person, in believing the deception of Mormonism, actually revealed a heart previously hidden that is anti-Christ. Again, we see that nothing is working against us. God is permitting all the “-isms” for the revelation of hearts. The germ of every cult is this promise of keeping the flesh alive through some kind of God-playing. The amazing thing is that it holds any attraction, when it is so much easier to have a God than to play God.