The Long Awaited Pictures of Aidan!

Many of you, especially out of town family, have been longing for more pictures of Aidan. Well, eat your heart out. I absolutely love being his Dad. While we're still trying to figure out this whole parenting thing, wading through uncharted waters, we still just love how totally cute he is.

More Aidan Pics, part Deux

Saturday Morning Thoughts, Afternoon Version

Yesterday was my "golden birthday" yesterday, which for me came at 29. I thank God for the many blessings he has poured out on my life in the past year. I feel like I've grown tremendously this past year of my life, experiencing and loving full time ministry on staff at Grace Fellowship. I had a great time celebrating with a bunch of friends last night, then taking Anne to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX theatre. Absolutely amazing show.

Three weeks ago I received an incredible and amazing birthday present--my son was born three weeks before my own birthday, on 8-8-08. Aidan is so awesome. There is no way to describe some of the faces that he makes besides "adorable" and "cute." He just is! It's so great to hold him and spend time with him. Still working on some pictures to post. Sorry for making you all wait!

On a completely other note, is New Orleans over? With Gustav now at 145 mph, and probably becoming a Cat 5, one has to wonder. I will at least be praying for my cousins who live in Alexandria, LA. Maybe it won't be as bad when it gets there.
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It sounds like it's time to feed Aidan again, so no more thoughts for now!

I'm on Skype Now

Another technology in which I think I'm sort of a late bloomer, but better late than never. I think this could be a highly effective ministry tool, it's much more personal of an experience when you have a webcam because you can see each other. If you're on Skype, my name is jasbuddy.

Help Needed at the Office

We need a couple of guys to come into the office during a week day tomorrow or next week for a couple of hours to do some stuff. Grace is going to the next level at the fall kickoff--the shipments coming in today alone from UPS and other couriers are proof of that! We're also trying to keep the office somewhat organized. We need one or two guys to put a few tables together, haul a desk to a storage unit, and then do some maintenance work at the offices. If you have a couple hours of available time to volunteer, email me!

Saturday AM thoughts

Good morning sun! How was your week long vacation? We missed you while Fay was around. She was a bad babysitter.

My thoughts go out to our friends Murph and Maruxa, and Casey and Angela, who are dealing with Fay's floodwaters in Sanford. May the floodwaters recede!

This week has gotten quite a bit better from beginning to end as far as our feelings of confidence in parenting Aidan. Not that we're really all that confident yet, but we're not emotional basketcases anymore.

Yesterday we did get sent by our pediatrician to an urgent care peds clinic. Dr. Cobian found a couple tiny, tiny pustules, and so playing it safe she sent us there to get it cultured. They were so tiny they couldn't get any cultures of them, but the doc there prescribed a little ointment for us to put on.

I have yet to figure out the financial ramifications of having a baby. We have spent so much in copays for visits and meds over the last two weeks! I'm hoping we reach that point where we have so many medical expenses they count a little extra on our tax return. Of course, that doesn't help us this month.

Yet we consider ourselves financially stable for the moment, stable enough to commit ourselves to The Generous Life Campaign. Check it out. Incredible. I'm so proud to be a part of this.

Many people are still coming forward or asking from afar how we are doing, and how they can help us as we learn to be new parents. Thank you all so much for your love and support. We really are doing OK for now, but if we can use another meal or two, we'll let you know. One way you can set our hearts at ease is to help out Murph and Maruxa when their time comes. They are great friends and have been a wonderful support for us in this time. We're excited Aidan will have little Maya only a few weeks younger than him to play with at church.

I've always loved the word "Shenanigans". Like when Matt Foley says on SNL, "What did you hope to accomplish by these shenanigans?"

I like ending on that completely random note.

What's in a Name

In the Bible, people were given names that were meant to speak to the character of the person. The same goes for God. In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus was prophesied as the one who would be named "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

I don't think that many people choose names today with their children's character in mind, but Anne and I had it in mind somewhat. Primarily we choose Aidan's name out of a list of names we had narrowed down because we liked the sound and the uniqueness of his name. I know, I know, it's alot more popular these days, but still, we love it. We love Irish culture (although we've never been to Ireland and want to go some time), and appreciated the sound of the name. It so happens that his name means "fire." Anne and I pray that the fire of God will bring purity and life to his soul, that he would be a flame burning brightly for God.

As for Michael, let me begin with a lesson in Biblical Hebrew: the Hebrew name for God is "El." Many words that contain "el" refer to God in some way. Michael, in Hebrew pronounced "Mi-cha-el"--with a hard, gutteral 'h,'" means "Who is like God?" Anne and I vascillated between Michael and Matthew, but in the end we chose Michael because it points us so much to God. The story of how Aidan Michael came to be (which I will tell more completely) reflects this characteristic of God. Who is like Him? Only He can orchestrate the events that have come to place in our lives, and in Aidan's little one week life so far. So we sing, like David Crowder, "There is no one like You, there has never, ever been anyone like You, God."

Thank you God, for the gift of our son, Aidan Michael. Aidan, as I composed this you turned one week old. May you ever and always know this truth, that there is NO ONE like our God. May you be a fire burning brightly for Him. Your mom and I love you dearly.

More Pictures

The birth story I will probably start posting in the next day or two, piece by piece, and let Anne tell her version too as if I'm not even posting. The pediatrician just came in and talked to us a little about phototherapy, which they are putting Aidan on. Here's some pictures to keep you company for now.

Wednesday's Post: Addt'l Thought

And who can forget "Because He Lives"? How many times I heard that song growing up. Does anyone here know the motions to "Shine, Jesus, Shine?"

In the early 90's, an album came out called "Songs from the Loft." It was a classic. I haven't heard about it for many years, but just looking through the track listing I can sing most of the songs.

Alright, I was going to post longer but there's too much going on here in 7314 today. Little Aidan is doing really well, just feeding seems to be a bit of a challenge.

Photos of Aidan Michael Vermeulen

Husbandry and Fatherhood

I'm sitting in the sanctuary at the church listening to rehearsal, where Anne is playing keyboards. For nearly a week now she's had a bad cold and cough. Her coughing has really affected her sleep, it's the hard, loud cough where your whole body tightens up. And being 38 weeks pregnant she can't take any meds to make herself feel better. All day today, she's been having contractions, pre-labor, not actual labor, but as the day has progressed she's gotten more uncomfortable. As King Theoden would say, "And so it begins!"

I'm just really proud of her, because last weekend she came and played keyboards even though she was sick and had no voice. Here she is again, contractions and all but all about serving God and his people in worship. Our son seems to enjoy rehearsals too; ever since Anne could feel him kick, he seems to do it a lot during rehearsal and Sunday services. He definitely shouldn't have a problem hearing it, since I'd say rehearsal is running at around 110db. ROCK ON! BTW, worship this Sunday is going to be awesome!


Last night we watched Disney's "Bridge to Terabithia." While I admit it certainly was not the greatest movie ever, it wasn't as bad and as far off as I thought it would be. What I really felt connected to as I watched was Jesse's father, played actually quite well by the mercury guy from Terminator 2. At first they brought out the side of him that was a gruff, hard, and frequently absent dad who wanted his son to be a man. But as the story unfolded, and tragedy struck, he stepped into nurturing his son, guiding him through pain and sadness with comforting words and a steady hand. He ran to stop his son, who was alone and afraid in the woods, and he held him and hugged him as he broke down. It made me so excited to be a dad. I'm looking forward to every stage of his life and fathering him. I hope he and I build a great relationship and friendship. One book I plan to start over and finish this time is The Way of the Wild Heart. Very helpful to set the tone to raise a passionate man of God.

Hey, Remember the 90's in worship?

Our worship leader Chad posted a little blog on early 90's worship. Oh, how true it is was! I have some very fond memories from growing up. At the time I was in junior high and high school, and I always looked forward to Sundays at my church, Sunshine Church. There came a time where I became very interested in Vineyard worship music, which was cutting edge and in its hey day at the time. We didn't really sing too much Vineyard stuff at our church, but I began to buy their CD's. I still have at least 30 of them, the most recent dating about 2002.

Here's a list of some of songs I remember singing in church--note, we sang many hymns as well. Can I get a shout of from anyone that knows what a "hymnsing" is? Did yours always include a rousing rendition of "When We All Get To Heaven"? Anytime I want to relieve a hymnsing (which is pretty much never), I find the Gaither homecoming on one of the Jesus channels. Anyway:
-In moments like these
-(Lord prepare me to be a) Sanctuary
-Celebrate Jesus
-I Exalt Thee
-Trees of the Field
-Lord I Lift Your Name on High
-A Sheild About Me
-Blessed be the Name (There actually 5 songs of the same title in my head)
-Alleluia, He is Coming (this was too progressive for big church, only in youth group)
-Step by Step
-Awesome God (Ever done this chorus 5 times to just the organ?)
-Change My Heart, O God

Ok there's a ton I'm forgetting. But here's a great top 25 list! Does Maranatha Music even exist anymore?

Prayers of the Fathers

Last week I found myself with Mike touring the new facility of a church I used to be quite involved at. When I opened the door, the first person I saw was a good old friend named Bruce, a man who is very close to Jesus. Having survived a long and agonizing fight with terminal illness, he loves the local church, and loved me and many of the friends I hung with when I was there. As we walked through the building I caught up with him, and he happened to mention that he still prays for me every day. I've heard this statement from several people throughout my life, people who I consider to be much older and wiser in the faith journey than me. It's pretty awesome to know they care enough to lift me up in their prayers.

As we get closer to God and more intentional about time with him, and do the same with others, this is great discipline to develop. Other people need our prayers. I'm convinced that my life has been seriously impacted, that God has blessed me and directed my life, in part because of the prayers of others. What are the major things you need to pray for right now? Who do you need to pray for? Pick 3-5 people in your life whom you think could use an answer to prayer.

Kid Thoughts

So you all should know that Anne officially reached full term pregnancy status on Thursday, meaning our son could come any day now. Here's some thoughts that I been thinkin':
-Anne's stomach has grown so much in the past few weeks! That kid's grown a lot just in the last month or so, and this morning we had fun watching him kneading the inside wall of anne's uterus. So funny to see movement much like, as Anne has referenced, the movie Aliens.
-I am very excited to be a dad. The role and responsibilities of fatherhood change and morph just as much as the child--which is often, so this is going to be an adventure but I'm sure looking forward to it. I hope to really bestow a masculinity, and a heart of wisdom, that reflects the heart and masculinity of Jesus.
-Sometimes I wish our house was in better shape for having a baby, but I remember these things: When I was little, my parents were renovating homes in New Jersey, so there was sawdust and drywall dust, and I'd imagine some not-so-kid-friendly items around. And I turned out just fine! The paint chips only affected me a little.... :-) And, for all of history, kids have been born into homes without socket protectors, with ungrounded electrical systems (obviously I'm not covering a lengthy period of history so far...), with all sorts of dangers and potentially harmful causes surrounding. And most every one of them turned out just fine. In conclusion, we're being prudent on taking away those hazards, but we're not going nuts on that stuff.
-I'm very much looking forward to the labor and delivery experience. I know it's going to be quite a ride, but it will be a rewarding and enriching experience. I hope I can be the kind of coach Anne needs.
-When he's born, we're calling parents and Mike and Kelly. They can let everyone in the respective phone trees know the news. But I may twitter every now and then (I promise to keep it to a minimum, dear), and then post here when the time is right.
-There are many more thoughts, but my laptop battery is dying so I need to wrap up. Hopefully much more stories and pictures when he finally does show up!