Awaiting Baby #8: Faith, Family, and Advent Reflections (Ken & Janelle)

In today’s video, we’re diving into two exciting topics: preparing for Baby #8 and the start of our Advent Reflection Series. 🎄👶

Join advent daily here: https://catholicspeaker.lpages.co/advent2024/

Transcript

do you think the sweater is green is that what you said to me there's a little is there a little green in it no it's gray K's like I'll go get my green sweater like gray green no it's gray so we're going to fight before we uh turn on the cameras welcome back it's great to see you so T today's video we're going to talk about what our plan is for Advent coming up and then Janelle's going to give us a little update on pregnancy life right I guess I will Advent is a a beautiful time in the church where we are preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ St alonsus we're going to look at his Advent sermons and if you've been following us for the last number of years you know that we've done examinations of his daily sermons in Lan and Advent we're going back to him hopefully with fresh eyes and a renewed heart because you can read something again and something just catches you in a fresh way and so I just love St alonsus and I know recently you just before we turned on the cameras you were saying something right because I hadn't read any of his writings for quite a while and when I started reading them I was like oh right I remember how he speaks and how he you know approaches these topics it's good it's so good refreshing and how does he approach those topics he's very um I want to say black and white yeah it it really comes down to in his mind heaven or hell up or down left or right goats or sheep there is no in between and this is sometimes what we need we need to be reminded of the reality of this life and we cannot make Catholicism this soft thing because it's not a soft thing it's based on irrefutable truths that have been revealed to us by God and St alonsus just brings them out and says and this is how it's applicable to your life uh so I if you can't tell I just really love him and I love how he communicates and so Advent we turn our minds to remember the second coming of Christ that's one thing that we do in Advent and then the second thing is we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Nativity but you'll recognize this them theme with st alonsus is he's always going to go back to throughout Advent the second coming of Jesus the seriousness of sin um the reality of Hell the beauty of Heaven the the power of reparation the power of reparation the power of God's love to save us um but these are just wonderful reminders so 5 days a week we're going to be releasing videos Monday through Friday if you'd like to get these videos videos emailed to you there'll be a link in the description where you can sign up and start receiving these Daily Reflections we call it Advent daily although it's only five days of the week with the exception of the first Sunday of Advent that's right so we're going to get a bonus one there so that's what you can expect and also we're going to encourage people to say a rosary with us as as part of this journey to prepare our hearts mhm so did I miss anything well I did you want me to mention about um so I was reading a little bit through some of St alonso's sermons here just in preparation and he was talking about how we should be so grateful that we are living in a time after the arrival of Jesus on Earth and and he was talking about how um if Christ would have come onto the scene right after the fall of Adam how it would have had not as great of an impact and the reason for that is because people didn't understand the the degree or the evil of sin like how horrible and how horrendous it could what it could be and so they were you know waiting as long as God did to allow Jesus to be born in Bethlehem it was like people were ready people needed that savior to come and so we now living in 2024 we get to experience um the beauty of that of the coming savior this Christmas and what a privilege time to live because you know we could have God could have brought us into time at any point in time MH um could you imagine have been the the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years kind of start feeling discouraged discouraged tough life right also tough life MH um grumbling and complaining about God and then seeing these Great Signs and then in losing your faith like what Whiplash yeah exactly in one sense I think we live in a time that's well it's a Grace time it's the fullness of time because Jesus has come into the world yeah and that's exactly what it's called in Galatians they call it um a happy time and they call it the fullness of time yeah so we're blessed to be living now and seeking Jesus um so enough about ad so about this pregnancy about so when this video is released I will be 34 weeks pregnant wow and um the earliest we ever had a baby was at 37 and in case somebody's wondering how many babies have you had oh okay this will be baby number eight um though I did have one miscarriage so I guess technically a nth pregnancy but um so baby number eight I'm 43 years old which I feel like is kind of old in the time of having babies they call you a geriatric geriatric um pregnancy wow um I don't cons I consider you s a Sprint chicken right can't trust those medical establishment people they get wrong sometimes but anyhow I it's funny because throughout this whole pregnancy I've been telling people I'm like this has been like the best pregnancy and honestly it really has like it's I've had a lot of energy and it's been just really joyful and um I feel like it just sometimes it's like I forget that I'm even pregnant but that kind of has sort of changed these last few weeks I've definitely come to the realization that I can't move as quickly and that I have more challenges just catching my breath or picking things up off the floor um but it's it's still beautiful and I feel like it's what a Grace time to be able to offer up these little sufferings cuz I feel like otherwise I actually don't have many sufferings in my life like many physical sufferings and so um to be able to give that up I just I'm thankful for that as well but I do feel like um the baby will be here pretty soon so my due date is January 6th which is Epiphany um however um I've never reached my due date the latest I've gone I think is 39 weeks and 2 days so I'm thinking this baby will be here around New Year's so 39 weeks puts us where um I guess that would that would be right around New New Year's I think or just like the day before New Year's I don't know I I that's the latest you've gone yeah that's right holy moly yeah so it's going to be busy around here soon so so you're pretty confident we're not going to get to 2025 with this baby uh I don't know I guess the baby will come when they come and uh we won't pressure them right to come out so we're lining up maybe could possibly be January 1st if if you car to the farthest you've ever gone that's right I think that would be right yeah wow yeah so we'll see I'm nervous we'll keep you updated you're nervous why are you nervous just cuz it's busy or are you nervous about the labor I don't like seeing you suffer yeah you know it's not a pleasant thing but also it's a beautiful thing you know it and it happens pretty I don't know how we but it happens pretty quick previous pregnancies I I've had a lot of anxiety going into labor and delivery just like knowing you know having had you know with our last baby for example having had six um natural births just knowing what was coming and it was just I remember I would have a hard time sleeping and just feel so anxious waking up in the middle of the night thinking is it happening is it happening and K would be like you know that hard part really isn't that long well I time it you know and I'm like it's not going be that much longer but like that that hard part is like what I fixate on right but you know what God did something beautiful this La the last delivery and I just feel like I've had no worries or anxiety about this coming one which is so I'm so grateful for because it was really stealing a lot of my peace and um so we have had uh this this will be our sixth home birth if if it does end up being a home birth and those in them M themselves have been really beautiful our first two babies were born at the hospital and they were beautiful too and then I was able to get on with the midwives and um that's a whole new experience too and and I'm not opposed to go to the hospital clearly if I had a high-risk pregnancy or if there's any complications we go and um yeah so some people from other countries or even Canada might be a little bit unfamiliar with the idea of a home birth they might be seen kind of as a fringe kind of radical type thing that many people don't do but it's actually part of our health care System where we're blessed in this way I think in Canada to have health care that's covered by the government our taxes go towards paying for that so we don't have Private health care and it's very difficult to get on to this program MH the Midwifery is what it's it's very difficult many people want to but they don't get on and so once you get on on that list it's easier to stay on that list and so it's been for you you would say it been a huge blessing hasn't it oh yeah most certainly like it's just the fact that you don't even have to leave your home I remember some of the hardest parts during those first two was like the commute from the house to the hospital so it's just really nice to not have to do that and then to just stay home like as soon as a baby's born it's like you're in your own bed you're in your own rocking chair you're it's just really nice MH the kids might some people like their kids around I would not want my kids yeah so cameras are off kids are

gone this they'll be me and Janelle the Midwife and they have a second yeah there's just pray that it doesn't snow too much and that our road is clear yes so anyhow other than that I don't know is there anything else you want me to share no I think that's enough unless you want to get more

detailed so please join us or Advent we look forward to journeying with you and we'd be honored if you would and you know it's all free and please share this opportunity with somebody that you think might be interested in journeying with you on or a group you could have a Bible study and you could do this together um you'll get the emails sent to you so please consider that and so how would people find these readings if they were interested in following along I will put a link in the description of each video that we release and that's where you can find the readings if you wanted to do the whole reading that's it yep okay join us click below God bless you [Music]