at 18 weeks...it's a GIRL!!!

I just wanted to share an excerpt from an email that I sent to people I work with detailing an experience that I had. I couldn't be too bold in how my faith was responsible for the extraordinary night when I shared with them. I've never felt so moved by the Holy Spirit and had such clarity of how precious our salvation through Jesus Christ is.


"My wife and I found out that we were going to be having a baby back in May. This past week, Thursday to be exact, we found out that our baby was more specifically a baby girl. Every man that grows up playing baseball dreams of teaching his little boy how to throw, but I know that a little girl's first love is her daddy. As Sara and I found out the news on Thursday I couldn't help but visualize how my daughter is going to think that her daddy hung the moon. However, being a thinker I quickly started becoming overwhelmed with the reality that a sweet, innocent baby girl is going to be relying on me for everything. Everything. It freaked me out.

Sara kept asking me what was wrong. Was I disappointed that baby is a girl and not a boy? Absolutely not. Todd at ET asked me on Saturday if I was okay because he could tell that I was much more quiet than normal. The people around me knew that something was heavy on my mind.

Tonight we returned home about 11:45 from sharing the news that our baby was going to be Gabriella Grace Deel instead of Micah Stephen Deel with family. At 12am, we laid down to sleep. At 12:15am I could tell that I was not falling asleep anytime soon. At 12:20am, I reached past my Supernovas and put on my Pegasus, my brand new Pegasus that I did not want to get dirty, and I went for a run. Something amazing happened.

During the first mile, I didn't notice any pain in my knee. My mind was free from dealing with the physical pain and instead focused on the beautiful miracle of the circle of life. During the second mile, I forgot that I had ever had any hip pain and instead envisioned the smell of my daughter's head when I kiss it right after her first bath. The way I'll feel the first time I make her smile. How I'll fall asleep holding her in a rocking chair in the middle of the night and wake up with her sleeping in my arms. Whether her nickname will be Gabbi, Ella, Brie, or if I'll always call her Gabriella. Whether she'll be spazzy and energetic like her dad or if she'll be focused and graceful like her mommy. Whether she'll have big cheek bones like her mom or if she'll have bushy eyebrows like her daddy.

At this point, I was hitting mile seven. The longest I'd ever run up to this point in my life was 4 miles. As I was running the last mile, I thought about what I want to be known as to my daughter. When she thinks of God fearing, strength, integrity, compassion, kindness, boldness, humbleness, dignity, sacrificing, and a passion for life; I want her to think of her dad.

During the eight miles I ran in the early hours of today I was able to marvel in the splendor of the baby girl my wife will give birth to in late December. The three days prior to that I was a nervous, anxious wreck. Now, after time in prayer, time with family, the hour in my Pegasus and the subsequent endorphins; that energy is being translated into passion for and about life."

thanks for reading

14 weeks, Looking forward to July 29th!

14 weeks....





Today Sara and I went to see the baby doctor for another check up and man, did it go well. We met with a different doctor than we normally do and this man was extremely nice, caring, and reassuring. Also, we were able to hear the heartbeat again and from the sound of it, he or she is going to be a runner. And speaking of he or she, the date when we find if our baby is a boy or a girl was bumped up and is now JULY 29th!!!

A month has past since we updated everyone last so I'll do my best to backtrack and fill in the blanks.

My dad celebrated his 60th birthday in June we were very blessed to be able to travel to visit with him and mom the weekend of his birthday. Also, it was great seeing my brother Kevin and sister in-law Jamie. I can't believe I hadn't seen them since the wedding last year. Bryan unfortunately was unable to make it up and we all missed him terribly.

Sara continued to complete clinical hours and started her summer class work and research project. She is doing marvelously but I know she is missing her last preceptor, Janus was not just a mentor but a friend as well.

I had a little car trouble and because of this Sara and I are currently looking at vehicles that are fuel efficient, dependable, and baby friendly. This happened just as we started to look at buying a new condo so it was easy to get discouraged about the situation. But instead, after a night and day praying about it, Sara and I were able see how the Lord was working in this situation.

1. We were needing a new car for the baby.
2. We are considering buying a new condo.
3. When we first started looking at condos, we weren't budgeting for a car payment.

It seemed as if God was saying "Hold on, step back and look at this whole picture before you dive into the condo."

Can I say THANK YOU JESUS!

An Amazing Time of Growth

Sara is officially nine weeks pregnant now! She has been a trooper through all of the morning sickness, not to mention, the afternoon and evening sickness as well. The speedy growth of the baby is also wearing her down during the day. I have felt bad for her as she goes through this but I like to search for a silver lining. Other than the obvious reason of a baby growing inside of her; I've enjoyed this first trimester because of her crazy food cravings. It's nothing too shocking like pickle juice and peanut butter, but the craving of greasy foods, i.e. burgers, pizza, and mexican have really made for some interesting grocery runs at 11 pm.

We went at 7 weeks and heard our baby's heart beat. It was amazing, I was frozen with amazement when I first saw the heartbeat on the ultrasound screen and then to hear it brought me to tears. I cannot wait to be a dad.

Last Tuesday, at 8 weeks Sara went back for another ultrasound and the baby's heart rate was 144 beats per minute! I wasn't able to go but Sara's mom was there with her, I know she enjoyed that.

Right now it's just helping Sara stay comfortable and keeping her stomach settled. Keep praying for us and the baby!

The baby is growing

Our baby is now the size of a sweet pea!

Time to catch you up

Ok, so it's only been about 5 months since we wrote last, so there may be a little to catch you up on, such as; Sara's boards, Sara's school, Stephen's job, and general family news. Oh and the random pictures here are from the two trips we took to the Biltmore Estate in March and April.



Sara's boards were actually delayed until the first week of February because the school was being very lazy with sending in the students' registration information for the exams. After it was all said and done, Sara aced 'em! That's right, there were a minimum of 75 questions and everytime you answered one correctly the questions got more difficult and say if you missed one, you would have to take 76 questions, and well...Sara only had to answer 75 questions! She's so smart it hurts my head.

Meanwhile, she's been kicking butt in her classes and she's been dominating her clinicals at a family practice in Oak Ridge much like Shaq dominated in the late '90s. She'll continue her clinicals through the summer too.

Since the last few weeks of December, I have been working exclusively at my old company Sport Seasons. In January they came to me and asked me to help them manage the store at Knoxville Center mall. The commute stinks, but I enjoy the work and it's been great while I search for a new job in the financial world.

On Saturday April 19th, Sara and I went to the Dollar General in Farragut and purchased two tests. At first they seemed to each produce a negative result, but when a few minutes passed, the faintest pink line showed up. We were elated but still nervous because the tests say the results are invalid after 5 mins, and it had been around 6 or 7. Sunday we took two more tests and one was negative and the other (digital test) read "error." Having no idea what this meant for us, we went to the dr.'s office on Monday for routine bloodwork for Sara and asked them if they could run a pregnancy test as well. The nurse appeared out of the back and told us the test was negative. I was crushed, speechless and worried about Sara all at the same time. Deep down, I was embarrassed for the nurse because I knew she was wrong, I just knew it. After she saw the disappointment on our faces she kindly said she would run another test using a different method. When she appeared the second time there was the faintest pink line, but just faint enough to cause doubt and hope at the same time.



At about 12pm the next day, the lab called Sara to tell her where her hormone levels were at, and also by the way to tell her, we are in fact:

PREGNANT!!!!!!!

I'm going to be a daddy!

Sara's going to be a mommy!

And we're going to parents!

That's right, all moms and dads, you're going to be grandparents, all brothers and sisters, you're going to be uncles and aunts.

Stay tuned for more news...