Harbor Life Ministries

Chelsy and her new daughter Adelynne Joelle are both doing well after the baby’s arrival at 3:15 pm this afternoon, Friday, February 5.

Adelynne weighed a healthy 6 lb. 14 ounces.

Chelsy checked in at the hospital last evening. The induction meds were administered this morning and 2 pm, Chelsy was fully dilated and ready to push.

Chelsy’s most recent estimated due date was February 2. Possibly little Adelynne wanted to leave the job of predicting winter’s length to Buckeye Chuck and his associates. Whatever the reason, Chelsy didn’t miss her due date by much but she was definitely ready to get past pregnancy and on with parenting.

Chelsy’s mother (and Adelynne’s proud grandmother) Lena said she would get photos ASAP. Even so, it doesn’t require anything but a little imagination to see the smile on both Chelsy and Lena’s faces.

Please keep little Adelynne and Chelsy along with her family in your prayers.

Induction is scheduled at 9pm tonight, Feb. 4, for Chelsy, whose due date was two days ago.

The sex of the baby is undetermined, so even though an induction takes some of the surprise out of the birth, the baby’s name could be Carson Zavier or Adelynn Joelle.

Chelsy will be parenting her child, boy or girl. Her mother Lena will assist her.

Please pray for Chelsy to have a healthy baby, and remember to check back tomorrow. Subscribing to our feed is a good way to keep on top of news from HLM.

A couple from Norwalk have opened their home to Mindy and daughter Emily so that Mindy can focus on completing her schooling and getting a job.

Luke 15:10 says, “…there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Recently, God’s angels had a reason to doubly rejoice as two Harbor House teen girls became Followers of Jesus Christ.

Thank the Lord for how He makes an eternal impact through the ministry of HLM!

Bill Rieth, HLM Interim Executive Director

For approximately 20 years I have had the privilege of serving HLM on the board. Now, God has given me the opportunity to assist HLM by being the interim Executive Director.

In this capacity I hope that the Lord can use me to expand and improve the life changing ministry of HLM.

Please pray for one of our residents (who we will call “Felicia”) as she may be going home today.

Felicia is 16 and due in February but has completed all the program requirements, and her mother and family would love to see her return to home so that they can be close in this final month before the birth.

While at Harbor House Felicia realized that God would forgive her sins if she asked, so just recently she prayed for forgiveness and asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. She is seeking a deeper relationship with God and wanting to know all of what it means to follow Christ.

Please pray that Felicia will “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” as she reintegrates into her home, her family, her school and eventually into another new experience…motherhood!

Chelsy, 15, is from west-central Ohio, and arrived Monday, September 28, 2009.

Her baby is due to arrive in February 2010.

Chelsy is a freshman and has already gotten back into the swing of school as she’s enrolled in Ohio Virtual Academy.

Chelsy is hoping to parent her baby but will begin looking at the alternative choice of making an adoption plan, so that she can plot a course for herself that gives both her and the baby the best life possible.

Please keep Chelsy and her baby in your prayers.

            Hannah meets Samuel

Samuel Andrew, at 7 lb. 1 oz. and 21 inches long, arrived yesterday at 3:21 pm. Mom and baby are both doing well.

Her delivery was great. I was so impressed with her. She did such a great job.

Hannah’s mother could not get to Ohio for the delivery but should arrive Saturday, and then they plan to head back home on Monday to start school on Tuesday.

There were a few God things that happened at the hospital which I would love to share if anyone wants to hear.

Thanks again for all your love and prayers.

He’s finally here!

Hannah gave birth at 3:21 pm EDT to a baby boy weighing 7 lb. 1 oz., and 21 inches in length.

“She did great!” was Karla’s comment on the birth.

He has 10 fingers and 10 toes, but no name yet apparently. We’ll keep you posted. Check back or subscribe to our feed.

The day started at 5:30. Hannah woke Kirsten, our 18-year-old leaving for college in a few days who has become good friends in a short time with Hannah.

“Kirsten,” she said in her soft voice, “I think I’m really in labor now. The contractions hurt.”

The contractions were occurring about every two-to-three minutes. Kirsten and Hannah “hung out for awhile” (in Kirsten’s words), then woke Karla around 6:45 am. After showering and pulling everything together, they left for the hospital around 8.

The nurses checked her and found her cervix to be around 5 cm. dilated, half the distance to full dilation needed for childbirth.

They notified the doctor, who said she be in as soon as she could to break Hannah’s water. In the meantime, Hannah got comfortable–or as comfortable as she could get–in bed. The nurses wouldn’t allow her to get up and walk around until her water had been broken.

She tried out a few different positions as the contractions continued to get stronger.

The nurses did allow her to get onto the birthing ball for a short time. The birthing ball is air-filled plastic vinyl, about 3 feet in diameter, like a giant kickball. It helps stretch the muscles around the vaginal opening, loosening and relaxing them. It also takes some of the edge off the labor pains.

The doctor, who as it turned out had patients booked all day today at the office, stopped in on her lunch hour and broke the water. There had been speculation that Hannah would not have much water but that proved untrue.

With the water broken Hannah is able to get up and move around more, taking walks down the hall if she wishes.

The adoptive parents and their little 4-year-old daughter have been by Hannah’s side this morning, although they decided to send their daughter home at lunch with Grandma.

Please keep praying. Hopefully we’ll be able to announce soon, “it’s a boy!“

She arrived in early March from sunny southern California, and her time here in north central Ohio is almost at an end.

The contractions are five minutes apart. Some are painful, some are moderate and some are really light and quick.

It’s been a full day so rest, even sleep if possible, is necessary to give her energy to make it through the delivery.

The adoptive parents are certainly waiting by the phone for news, but nighttime is upon us and…who knows when the little boy Hannah has carried for nearly 38 weeks will make his appearance.

While we all wait, we sleep and rest. Good night.

Hannah has started having contractions but is still at home. If you would like to keep up on Hannah’s progress, you can follow Harbor Life Ministries on Twitter.

Hannah is now just a few weeks away from her due date of September 7.

A doctor’s visit revealed today that her body is getting ready and the birth canal has begun to dilate.

Please keep her and her baby in prayer and we’ll be sure to keep news on Hannah posted regularly here.

Sofia, June 30, 2009

They all get along soooo well! Jax completely loves her!

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?Redeemer? is a classic praise song that was written and recorded by Nicole C. Mullen in the ’90s. The original song featured powerful vocals that made the song stand out among other praise songs at the time, and are still difficult to emulate.

With permission of the song’s author, Hannah has determined to sing it as a preview of a music CD that will be available at Walk for Life ‘09. With Kara Eberle accompanying her on acoustic guitar and sung from the front porch of Harbor House Norwalk, Hannah shows that, even at (just turned) 16 years old, God has given her a beautiful but equally powerful voice.

The CD is still in the works, but it’s shaping up to be an inspiring collection of songs and hymns, and our hope is it inspires our supporters to worship our Lord God the Creator through Christ Jesus our Redeemer.

Songs From the Porch on Linwood Avenue from Harbor Life on Vimeo.

Pledge forms are available at WalkForLife09.com; the music CD will be given away as an incentive…

Every so often, Dan and Renae Alexander of Milan, Ohio, invite pregnant teens into their home for a weekend.

This is a critical act of servanthood for Harbor House, where the budget won’t allow hired help to give primary houseparents Doug and Karla Eberle and family time off.

The Alexanders, who have two grown children, also have a daughter Kaitlyn, 12, who gets older sisters for a couple of days to share time with.

School’s out for Hannah! She finished work tonight in her last workbook.

Hannah is home-schooled, with her mother supplying her curriculum along with the scope and sequence. She also grades Hannah’s tests.

?It was easy.?

That’s what Sara had to say about the GED test.

Her road to getting a diploma equivalent began with a pretest in the areas where she was weak. She struggled with the calculator portion of the math test.

Sara then took a calculator class with a tutor. After that she studied the next three weeks on her own.

The actual test took around five hours to complete. When she had finished with it she wasn’t sure that she had passed. Actually, she feared she had failed.

Five days when by before the results arrived.

So now what?

?I want to get my STNA certification from the state and then look for a job,? she said.

Sara is staying at Harbor House until she has met certain requirements established by the county court. She had her baby last August, a boy named Bryce, whom she placed for adoption.

Colt Justice is the name given by the adoptive parents to a baby boy born Monday, June 1, 2009 at Community Hospital in Coldwater, Ohio.

Colt weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long at birth.

I wanted to share a blessing from todays work.

I had to get up at 5:00 to get the girls up and around and get us to Celina at 9:00 to open the Pregnancy Center. I have to be honest, I really did not want to get out of bed and come. It was a hard trip, we were all very tired. But we did our devotions together, and that was good. But God worked today in ways that were exciting because I could actually see him work.

I had a phone call of young girl, 24, from Celina who needed to come in to EPS and talk about ?things.? When she got here we found out she had an abortion appointment tomorrow. So we talked and discussed options and support and she is not going for that abortion appointment tomorrow.

Another phone call came in and it was a mother of a 17 year old who just recently told her she was pregnant and she is 27 weeks. They went to the abortion clinic last week, but she was too far along, so they needed to go to a different clinic (praise the LORD), but she also called here, even though she had an appointment for today at the other clinic. We spoke and mom cried and cried, but she said she was not taking her daughter for the abortion, she did not really believe in abortion, even though the daughter wanted the abortion. They are coming in to talk on Thursday. Another life saved from abortion.

Watching God work is the reason we are here. You know without us being here today, those babies may not be here tomorrow… God really makes our jobs relevant to what He has called us to.