Monday, June 25, 2012

What A Crazy Month!!

In looking at my blog, I see that it has been about a month since my last post...and what a month it has been. To say that this past month has been been crazy would be one of the greatest understatements of my life. The most significant event of the past 30 days is undoubtedly the birth of my first child, Zoe Hope Bowker. She graced us with her presence on Wednesday, May 30 at 12:39pm, weighing in at 7 pounds 1.5 ounces. She has been amazing thus far, and parenting has been an incredible journey. She is now almost one month old and is doing great. Mom and baby are both really healthy and we are loving our life. I am sure that as I settle into a better routine and get back to a relatively normal life again I will be blogging plenty about the joy, pain, and humor of raising our daughter.

As a result of Zoe's birth, our apartment has been a revolving door of friends and family. We have the greatest friends in the world, and feel so fortunate that they were with us throughout this entire process. They brought us food each day, ran errands for us, and were a constant presence of love and support during our initial period of adjustment. Our families came to visit about two weeks after Zoe was born, so our friends were incredibly helpful over those first weeks of her life, serving as our Seattle family. My parents were then in town for a week, followed by a week with Mandy's parents. They are all so excited to be grandparents again, so it has been really fun to watch them interact with their granddaughter.

The final thing that has added to the chaos of this past month is that I officially graduated from seminary this past Saturday. After four great, yet challenging, years of graduate school at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, I graduated with my Master of Divinity degree. This was a very special day for me as it marked the culmination of a daunting journey--one that led us to sell half of our possessions, quit our jobs, leave our home, and move half-way across the country to a city where we knew no one and had no pre-arranged source of income. It has been a beautiful story of adventure, risk, and courage, and I am so glad that Mandy and I decided to venture out together.

So yeah...it's been a crazy month. I'll keep you all posted on the continued unfolding of my story. Looks like it's gonna be a wild ride...just the way I would prefer it!