Yes... I am giving a Family Update: ALive and Well in St. Louis (well... CLayton to be more accuratel

OK... here is the quick run down: we made to St. Louis! We arrived on Friday, 11/13 (that's right... Friday the 13 th), got the stuff moved in and beds set up that weekend and started work on Monday, 11/16... which included a 3 hour planning session with the leadership team. Needless to say, I have been drinking from a fire hose... *and loving it!* I am already leading worship and will preach on 12/6 and 12/20.

Also in the midst of adjusting to a new call, we are looking for a house in West County, St. Louis. We put an offer on a house today (pictured to the right) and are waiting to hear back. It is a foreclosure and needs some love, but the price is right and the location couldn't be better. So be praying for us that the bank accepts our offer.

As for the kids and mom... they are excited about old friends they are getting re-acquainted with but the stress of the move and temp housing is taking a toll on everybody. They miss friends back in South Carolina. Attitudes remain generally positive however, and they are really hoping we get the house.

Here are a few recent pictures of where we are right now. This first one is our apartment building. Our apartment is on the first floor, just to the left of the red door.







This is looking north up Hanley Road, right in front of our apartment. It is a view of the beginning of downtown Clayton (which is just outside of St. Louis, proper).







This is Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, MO. This is the main campus of the work I will be leading out in the part of the county (Chesterfield, MO). The apartment building we live in is picture just to the left of the church building so you see my current commute to work is quite long.




Here is a shot of the Chesterfield site right after worship this past Sunday. We meet in the West County YMCA. It is a an intimate group but we are praying that intimacy will grow in depth and breadth in the weeks and months to come!





And lastly, here is one of the kids (sans Zach) from our camping trip last month. It was on of the last 'hurrahs' while still living in SC.

Thanks for all your prayers... and keep them coming! The Lord has been listening!

I Am Such a Slacker

Don't know if anybody is looking at this anymore since I have been so slack in posting. But I spoke with an old friend today and it prompted to put some recent pictures of the fam at least for his viewing if for no one else.

Here we have the twins (Haleigh on the left, Olivia on the right) with their little brother, Zach, at the zoo. We had a great outing two weeks ago before the girls' sixth birthday (March 28th).

And here is mommy at Christmas time with nephew Matthew. Though Christmas was some time ago, I thought I would include this shot of Merry and the next one of me and the girls.

Here we have the whole gang, though Zach's face is obscured with his pacifier (aka boppy). Eli has since lost one of his front teeth and is soon to lose the next.

I hope to be more on the ball in the weeks to come but hopefully this gives you a sense of how the kids are growing.
More on the the family to come....

Some New Pics... & Some Prayer Requested

I thought you would enjoy some photos that express the personalities of the kids. Haleigh is the physical & silly one (in the blue). Olivia is the more dramatic and fiery personality (in the pink). Of course we are still learning who Zach is but he is already smiling and thinking he will have a similar disposition to his older brother. Time will tell.
Zach has had a little trouble recently with the his formula so please pray that we will be able to figure that out for him. Also, Merry has started first grade with Eli, and pre-K with the girls. I don't know how she does it! Pray for her stamina as she continue to have really wonderful awake time with Zach (seriously... he is very pleasant!)... but awake until 2:30 AM!

Enjoy the pics!

Pictures of the New House

And here is the house! We love it but it has been some work. We put hardwood floors inthe first floor in the public areas and new carpet everywhere else. We are still painting but making slow progress. I can't wait to show you Eli's room when it is done... painted in a blue (even the ceiling) and eventually will have the stars painted on it. It will be the night sky in the summer to reflect the way the sky looked on the nights both Eli and Zach were born (Zach will eventual share the room with Eli).

Some Pictures of the Expanded Family

It has been awhile but I wanted to post a few pictures of the expanded family and some of the new house. This post just has family. The girls are obviously in love with their new brother (Haleigh is in the pink if you wanted to know). I included one of Zach will his Billy Blanket. He has struggled a bit with jaundice and thus necessitated the glow in the dark blanket. I just thought the picture looked cool. I also included one of Eli's self-portraits. He has become quite the little photographer and has now moved into motion pictures with our digital camera. His first film, Batman & the Ghost of Mist, will soon be followed up by an untitled project on Spiderman and Doctor Octopus! (yours truly has been cast as Doc Oc).

He's Here!

Many of you have already received the news but I am happy to say that Zach has arrived!

Zachary Douglas Madi was born on Wednesday, July 26th at 3:26 PM eastern time.
Weight: 9 lbs 9 oz!
Lenth: 21.5 in.
Head Circimference: 15 in.
Chest Circumference: 14.5 in.

Mother and baby are doing great! They came "home" today at 2:30 PM and we are all absolutely thrilled... but particularly Eli, Haliegh & Olivia.

I only have access to the internet through my computer at work which does not have bloggerbot (a neat little program that's lets you post pictures to your blog) so I have posted pictures at My Yahoo website. You can get to them from this link: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/daryl_madi/album?.dir=/2341re2

Thanks for all your prayers! The Lord is really good... but I am still tired.

The Move to SC and Other Adventures

Well, the first official entry to the Madi Family Log is finally posted! It has been a crazy move from St. Louis, MO to Lexington, SC and the insanity won't abate any time soon.

Here is a brief description of the wild ride we are still on...

We came down to the wire in selling our house in MO with a couple expecting their first child putting a contract on our place three weeks before our hard move date. After some complicated negotiations, we arrived at the terms of the contract and headed to SC to look for a house.

It was a whirlwind trip leaving one Sunday after church, arriving Monday at 1 PM, dropping kids off at some friends’ house and starting the house hunt at 1:30 PM with our realtor. We found a house on Tuesday and put an offer in at 6 PM. We left Wednesday and negotiated the terms of the contract en route to St. Louis.

A week and a half later and on the eve of closing on our house in St. Louis, we were packing up the house and loading of the moving van (Thursday 6/29). Merry had one more OB visit that day and the doctor became concerned that the baby was measuring very large. In between moving the piano and the sleeper sofa, I was on the phone to Merry as she went in for an ultrasound, worrying about our unborn son.

Three hours after first hearing about the medical concerns, the doctor gave us the news: he is just a really big baby! Whew! But this has created some other complications as you will hear...

The wife of the couple buying our house also went into labor that but we were able to close without a hitch and headed to SC, Friday 6/30. While in the TN Mountains, I received a call from my sister telling my mom was in the hospital with "hyponatrimia" or low sodium. It can cause extreme exhaustion, muddled thinking and even delusions. Things were very scary there for a time by my sister played hero and brought my mom through the ordeal. Mom was in the hospital for over a week and is now recovering in a rehab facility. She should be home very soon.

I started my new ministry position on Monday 7/3 and hit the ground running. Because Lexington Presbyterian (PCA) was my church home for six years, I already had many established relationships. This allowed me to get right to work... so much for any break.

Our in-utero son continued to get bigger and our doctor here became concerned about a 12 to 13 lbs baby if we waited until the due date (8/12... yesterday's ultrasound estimated the baby at 9 lbs). So we began working through insurance issues and looking at dates to induce. We finally closed on our house here in Lexington last Tuesday (7/18... we have been living in the basement of an elder at LPC... a very spacious basement so it sounds like more of a hardship than it really was... in-ground pool, big screen projection TV, kitchen, stove, two bed rooms... not to bad. And free!). Flooring is going in this week and carpet early next week. We hope to move in Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Oh... we have now scheduled Merry's induction for tomorrow (7/25) at 6 AM so as not to conflict with my ordination transfer exam on Thursday or our 10th wedding anniversary... also this Thursday.

It makes me tired just thinking about.

Thanks for your friendship... and please be in prayer. God is good... but we are tired.