Oak Justice Mowery

Here he is!!!! Oak Justice Mowery

Born: October 30, 2010 at 10:58 p.m.

Weight: 9 lbs. 10 oz.

Height: 22 and a half inches

And what a cutie!!!!

Our first family photo as a family of 7! The children love Oak and cannot get enough of him. They are so excited to have a baby in the house again. As soon as he makes a peep Manon or Henna have him in their arms trying to comfort him. If this does not work they quickly bring him to me so he can eat. Judah is quite sweet with him and just wants to sit and watch Oak sleep. Ezra keeps putting super hero's in Oak's bed so he can sleep with them.

Here we are just moments after Oak was born. I was still out of breath and shaking all over!

This was literally seconds after he was born. As you can see he was still a little purple and I was in awe. Our first face to face meeting - truly love at first sight!

Here I am about an hour and a half before the birth. You can tell things are going well - I am still smiling, hair looks nice and I even have on a little make-up for photo opps! Just waiting to see the little guy who has been hiding in that big belly all these months.

Manon and Ezra getting to know Baby Oak.

Home from the hospital and back to the real world. With my first baby I only stayed one night in the hospital, with my second I stayed two nights - now I take the full 3 night package. It is a bit lonely and I don't like my blood pressure being taken every hour but other than that it is great to catch up on sleep and get uninterrupted hours to just gaze at the new baby.

The Name. . .

Oak Justice Mowery: Before knowing that we were expecting our next child, I (Monty) had been reading through Isaiah and God was speaking to me about chapter 61, specifically verse 3 (I even sent a message to my brother in law, praying the verse as a blessing over his birthday). This passage describes God’s vision for those with whom He’s healed and restored relationship. He wants them to be known as “oaks of righteousness” for his glory. Then he goes on to share how they will build up things (and people) who’ve been broken down. Finally in vs 8, he tells us the reason “why” he wants those he’s healed to go and heal others. Why? “Because I, God, love justice”.
Soon after this, Germaine came to me with the same passage, saying, “I think we should name our next child something from this passage...and, oh, by the way, I’m pregnant.”
So, after meditating on this passage, we both felt that our next child would be a boy and that he would be named some derivative of “Oak”. We tried to find more “normal” names with the meaning or background meaning of “oak”, “tree”, “forest”, etc... We looked at Greek, Hebrew, German, Old English, and more. We even looked into Wa and Chinese names (it is a bit funny that the word which sounds like “oak” in Wa actually refers to a family’s 5th born daughter; of course, in China, there aren’t many 5th-born daughters these days). “Silas” was a very close second choice, but, Finally, we just decided to stick with the good ol’ English word, “Oak”.

Our dedication and blessing over him is this: ”May he be a man of character and faith, strong as an oak, bringing the justice of Jesus to those in need, for the glory of God.”

The birth story:

On Friday afternoon Manon and I headed out on the town to shop. Manon wanted to explore all the local markets and look for gifts for friends back in China. We walked for about 6 hours around the city. By the end of the day I was having regular contractions and getting excited that Oak would be here soon. But. . . The regular contractions lingered all through the night and the entire next day. We had some friends babysit and we packed the hospital bag thinking we would go out, walk around a bit and soon be at the hospital. We left home around 10 a.m. on Saturday. We walked and walked – the entire mall and several rounds through the Night Safari. We even stopped for a movie as I kept timing contractions. By the end, I was feeling like the baby might not be born on Saturday. My contractions were staying at 8 minutes apart and I was still fine to walk throughout them. We called a nurse-friend and she recommended we just stop by the hospital and check how far along things were before returning home. We arrived at the hospital about 8:45 pm – things were well progressed and the baby was born 2 hours later! I was about 6 cm when we got to the hospital and within 20 minutes was at 8cm. At this point the doctor broke my water to keep things moving. From 8cm until the Oak was in my arms was one of the most difficult hours of my life! I could not tell contractions from the pain of the baby moving down the birth canal. Manon and Judah were both close in size to Oak. I remember having a rough time delivering Manon but I thought it was because she was my first. With Judah I had a water birth and I really think that helped with the pain. Our nurse friend showed up at the hospital just as I was to the point of saying, “I really don’t think I can do this!?!?!?” But, I say this every time. Just as she walked in the door her phone was ringing - it was Monty on the other end asking if she could please come. She said she was praying for me and the Lord already told her I needed her so to get in the car and come. I am so glad she walked in when she did especially to remind me that I could indeed do this and will in a matter of minutes. Monty has also improved a lot in his role as the mid-wife – knowing what to do when and what to say and not to say. He helped me keep it together. Once I was 10 cm it was only three pushing contractions until Oak was in my arms! I was able to squat for the first two which helped Oak move down quickly. For the last one I froze up somewhere between lying back and squatting - once I could feel the head coming I could not move. There was some tearing and a few stitches were needed. But now, a week later I am feeling so much better.

We are so grateful for this blessing of life that has been entrusted to our family. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Isaiah 61:3 “. . .that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”