If my someday baby is anything like my husband, he’ll be 15 minutes early.

But wait, this story isn’t about me or my someday babies, this is about my sweet little nephew Jack Henry who made a very dramatic arrival late Sunday night/early Monday morning, eight weeks before his due date.

My sweet sister-in-law Michelle has had one of those months that you wish you could just erase from your memory. First, her next-door neighbor’s house burned to the ground, and while her house was spared there was enough smoke damage to necessitate them moving in with her mother for a few weeks while her house was de-smoke-defied. (I made that term up because it sounds cool and mysterious).

Soon after that my sister-in-law had a series of bad news from doctors about complications with her pregnancy. She found herself on bed rest, then in the hospital on bed rest, with the hopes that she could take steroid shots to help Baby Jack’s lungs develop in case he came early.

Enter the prayer warriors – hundreds of them, from all over the place. Michelle and Baby Jack were prayed over, fasted for, and loved on by family and friends and friends of friends. It was such a sweet, sweet testimony of the love of Jesus.

We knew that it was just a matter of time before we got the call to head to Midland for the birth, but we didn’t expect that call to come Sunday night. Mr. Right and I spent 10 minutes packing, which was basically me throwing everything I own in the back of our car, then running back in the house for random things like a jar of peanut butter for the road and a handful of underwear that I forgot to pack, then spilling an entire mug of coffee all over the only pair of shorts I brought while Mr. Right sweet-talked our fabulous neighbors into feeding Harley the Wonder Schnoodle for an indefinite period of time while we were gone. Chaotic? You could say that.

Mr. Right finally pushed me into the car, we drove 45 minutes to pick up his parents, and then we were off to Midland, leaving Fort Worth at 9:30 p.m. for our 5-hour drive armed with what was left of my spilled coffee, some random baked goods I had swiped off my kitchen counter, and a book on tape.

After 87 games of Scrabble on my iPhone (where i beat the computer 85 times), we got to Midland around 2:00 a.m., just 20 minutes after Baby Jack was born. Thanks to all of those faithful prayer warriors it was a best-case scenario, with mom and baby doing okay. Baby Jack Henry came in at a whopping 4 pounds, 4 oz, with a full head of dark brown hair,  breathing and crying on his own.

After a quick round of hugs and a corporate sigh of relief, we stumbled back glossy-eyed to our temporary home around 4:00 a.m., and I finally dozed off around 4:30 a.m. for a fitful night of sleep. Mr. Right and I can’t remember the last time we were out past 11:00 p.m., so needless to say that 4:30 a.m. HURT.

After a little less than four hours of sleep, we were back up to spend time with our niece, the new big sister, and later that day we visited the hospital to make sure mom and dad were doing okay. And then we were back on the road to DFW, arriving home at 10:00 p.m., and within two minutes I was fast asleep in my bed, with a face full of makeup still on and all of my bags scattered throughout the house.

Confession: I left my house this morning with everything still scattered around the house, including a wayward hanger that somehow ended up in my kitchen. Homemaker of the Year. But hey, at least I don’t have coffee all over my pants today.

To my prayer warrior friends – please pray for sweet Baby Jack, who will probably stay in the NICU for about three weeks, and for his mama Michelle who is still recovering from being quite sick before the delivery. Pray for Mr. Right’s brother who has his hands full caring for a preemie and a 3-year-old and a recovering wife, and pray for the many wonderful people who are helping him out during this time. Please pray also that they get some PEACE and REST after what has been a terribly stressful series of events.

Oh Baby Jack, you have no idea how much your aunt and uncle love you. We have so many wonderful adventures planned for you in the future, and we are so happy you are here! I can’t wait to kiss that little forehead of yours.

Hi there blog buddies – I need a huge favor. I have started a new series on my work blog called Balanced Women – Healthy Families, and for my first post I featured my gorgeous sister and new mama Sarah. Today she’s giving advice to new moms on how to achieve balance during those crazy first few months of motherhood.

Would you be a huge friend and visit her on that blog today and leave her some encouragement in the comments? I’ll be featuring a different woman every Thursday morning and I am THRILLED with the posts we’ve already finished.

You see, this series is as much for me as it is for our readers.

It’s no secret that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, and what better way to glean wisdom than to ask some awesome women how they manage to do it all? The secret, I’ve found, is that they don’t really do it all. They just do the important stuff.

Genius!