We introduce you to Elijah Charles Keathley

Born July 22, 2009 at 12:32pm weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ounces and 20 inches long.

Elijah's Birthday

Click his picture and it will take you to a series of pics taken from first thing this morning til right now.  If, for some reason, clicking the pic doesn’t work, look to the right of this post and click on one of the pictures under “Our Pictures” and it will take you to our Flickr site where you can find them all.

Below are the videos we made throughout the day.  More videos to come, I’m sure .

There ya have it.  There are more pics on my phone, but the cord is at the hospital……where I need to be going .

I hope to get around to the, literally, hundreds of you who sent prayers, congrats and well wishes, eventually, but for now, as I’ve said many times today….

THANK YOU!

Praise God!

This time you get to guess.  Guess the DATE, WEIGHT and LENGTH.  Only this time there will be prizes!!!  3 different prizes actually….One for the closest in each category.

I’m gonna give you what I would consider all of the contributing factors and you put in the comment section your guesses.  Here we go:

• Gabriel, born March 23, 2002 weighed in at 9 pounds 7 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.
• Chaya, born August 10, 2005 weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 19.75 inches long.(yeah, weighed 8/10 ON 8/10…easy for her old dad to remember)
• Don’t know my exact weight at birth, so I can’t help ya there
• Ria, born November 13, 1981 weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces.
• The doc hasn’t given us a guess yet, but they have been wrong with the first two, so that wouldn’t help ya either.
• Ria’s due date is July 17.
• Her next appointment is July 5.
• There are other factors and if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know them….If not, you have some catching up to do.
• Below you’ll find the latest pic of Ria’s belly….I’ll just tell ya she looks similar, but maybe a bit smaller than with the first 2.  Then again, she wasn’t in the Army with them either .

ON TO THE PRIZES!!

The closest to date, weight and length will each get some kind of souvenir from Germany.  I’ll let you choose what ya want….t-shirt, drinking glasses, keychain, etc.

If there is anyone who guesses EXACTLY on any of the 3 categories, I’ll throw in a $50 iTunes gift card on top of the above mentioned prizes!

WOW, that Pastor T guy is AWESOME!!  No, he just loves ya!

Ok, get to guessing!!

You’re not even on this earth yet, but I love you.  I say that now because I’m famous for not saying it enough.  I’m working on that and we’re off to a good start, don’t ya think?

I wanted to tell you a few things…..things that God has put on my heart today.

That guy, God, I just mentioned…..He loves you.  Live for Him all of your life.  I am confident that your big brother and sister will be great role models on how to do this and, of course, your Mom and I will always be here to guide you.

I’m gonna be honest buddy, when I first heard that you were coming, joy was far from me.  I was at home, which at the time, was a million miles away from home.  Your Great Grandma had just passed away and my mind was probably not in the right place.  It didn’t take long for God to set me straight though and I fell in love with you.  I’ve prayed for you every night since then.  I’ve prayed that where ever I have screwed up with your brother and sister, would be avoided with you.  I’ve prayed that your Mom and I to have learned many lessons over the past 9 years and that we will give you the best of what God has given us.

Let’s be straight here…..We’re gonna mess up.  There will be a few days where you think we’re the worst, but trust that we are doing what we feel is best for you.  We will be wrong sometimes and you will be right sometimes and we pray that regardless of who is right, we treat every situation with love and understanding.

You may have noticed you and your siblings names have something in common.  We’ll get into Gabriel and Chaya another time, but I wanted you to know a few things about the great prophet Elijah who’s name you will carry through life.    You could be confused, like I was when first reading the Bible.  We know he was a prophet, but we know that Malachi said Elijah would come again and we know that Jesus said that John the Baptist was Elijah, but John denied that, but Jesus said that Elijah was still coming…..See what I mean??  Confusing!!

See, you are unique as was Elijah in the Bible.  He was a prophet from Israel and was used to call Israel into repentance and GET THIS…..He performed many miracles.  He even brought a dead boy back to life!!  Another thing that made him unique:  He was one of 2 people in the OT that never died physically, but was taken to Heaven in a firey chariot!  How awesome is that?!  And who appears with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration??  Yep, you guessed it…..Elijah!

Wow, a lot to live up to, right?  Well son, we didn’t clone the Elijah of the Bible, but we give you the name of a great man, who did great things; just as we pray you will be a great man and we expect you to do great things.

Just know I love you son!

ALWAYS treat your Mother with love and respect….YES, ALWAYS!

Study!  Things aren’t going to come to you….you must study and work hard and go get them!

If you say you’re gonna do it, you bet your butt that I’m gonna make sure you do it.  Think before you speak!

Pray!  Often!

Journal!  Daily!  You can’t do your job of spreading the Word of God unless you know it yourself.

LIVE!  I started living when I was 30 son.  Don’t be like me.  Life will be so much better for you if you embrace Jesus from the start…..and hold onto Him always.

Once more, I love you!

Dear God,

Thank you for Elijah!  Bless him Lord.  I pray You give him the tools to be a powerful soldier in Your Army.  Use him Lord, to expand Your Kingdom.  Keep him safe.  Use Ria and I and the experiences You have given us, to be a blessing on his life.  Give us the strength to say no and him the desire to say yes…to You Lord.  Thank You for blessing this family as You have!  We love You God!

Amen!