gabriel moises tovar - welcome

as most, if not all, of you know by now, my son was born yesterday. from now on, june 12 has a much deeper significance for me.

i will be posting pictures and video on gabriel's blog, but on here, i have always posted my thoughts. let me take you with me on my journey...abridged of course.

1:45am - sonia woke me up to tell me that her water had broken. i walked to her and checked it out..it was pretty obvious. she was dripping like a paper shopping bag if you broke a bottle of water in it. we got ready and we prayed together to ask the father for a healthy son and mercy for my wife.
2:30am - got to the hospital. they put her on pitocin to speed up the contractions since her water had broke and her contractions were still 5-7 min apart. that stuff really works man. they were to about 2-3 minutes within half an hour.
6:00am - the pain finally took sonia. after a few hours of contractions that came every 2 minutes (rookies: that means you get 1 min of pain followed by 1 min of recovery - which is never enough), she finally took the epidural. i was vey sad watching her in that pain. i was glad to hear her ask for it.
6:00am - 1:00pm -believe it or not, sonia didn't feel a whole lot of this and we even slept a little. like rick james said (almost), "Epidural is a hell of a drug!"
1:00pm (approx) - sonia starts pushing. i don't know if kaiser is cutting costs or what, but i was a little shocked when the midwife asked me to grab a leg. "what???" i thought i was gonna be safe behind a sheet protected from the sights. sounds, and smells of labor. no dice. i spent the next 2 hours watching my wife's face almost explode from pushing and an 8 lb chunk of human pass out of an orofice not fit for...well, you all kow what the deal is there. it was not only amazing, it was disgusting. i hope to never see that again.

my son was born at 2:50pm on june 12. i watched him come out, and i cried a little as they dropped him on sonia's chest. to be honest, i was more relieved to see sonia finally be able to relax than to see my son. but when i saw his face, it was surreal. it was not love at first sight like people like to talk about. it wasn't an overwhelming feeling of responsibility either. the only word i can really describe that emotion was "foreign". i don't know what it was, but i know i had never felt it before.

the first time i held my son, i talked to god for a second. i looked into my child's eyes and didn't talk to him. my mom kept telling me to talk to him. she didn't know, i don't blame her. but i needed to talk to god. i prayed for the boy that i had in my arms. i asked the lord to have mercy on him and lead him to the light. i prayed that my son would choose to follow jesus the way sonia and i have, and that he would someday experience the joy of meeting god. i prayed for me and sonia to be able to communicate the gospel to him through the way we raise him and the way we treat him. it was what my heart wanted to say to god.

gabriel's doing really well, and sonia is recovering nicely. she is exhausted and very sore (see 8 lb chunk of human comment above), but healthy other than that. i asked the lord when i found out that sonia was pregnant that he spare me sonia no matter what happened. she has always been and still is first in my life. i cherish her, and have gained a great amount of respect for her since sunday. and i am blessed to still have her.

thanks for all of you that came by the hospital to see us. it was a joy to share it with all of you. thank you to all of you who prayed for us. the lord heard your prayers.