To blog about the birth of our fifth child, Justis, in March, I've copied parts of my husbands' newsletter and added some things from my own perspective.

"An On Time God!

As I sit here and think of all the things I want to say in this newsletter all I can think about is what an awesome God we serve! He is always on time and is always in control.

I wanted to tell you what he has done in The Bowen Family's lives.

Back in August of last year (2010) Becky came to me and told me she thought she might be pregnant. To be honest with you I really hoped she wasn't. We were traveling and ministering in churches as a family for the last three years and things were going really good for us. I started thinking, how will we travel? What will we travel in? It's going to be even more tough to travel with five kids.

After a pregnancy test that showed negative I was relieved. Then a month later Becky told me that something wasn't right. She said she felt like something was growing in her stomach and if it wasn't a baby then what could it be?

She took another test and again it showed negative. She began to get concerned even more because 9 1/2 years ago her mother died of cancer, so Becky thought it might be a cyst or a tumor that was growing inside of her.

I told her I was praying and believing that it wasn't cancer and nothing was going to harm her. I told her to go get an ultrasound just to see what was growing in her stomach. She made an appointment and took our son, Landis with her. She didn't tell him what she was going to get checked out for other than just a check up. She had him stay in the other room because she wanted to speak freely with the doctor and not worry Landis.

Becky told the doctor her concerns and he said 'well, let's just have a look.' Just like looking away from the needle going into your arm makes it hurt less, Becky looked away from the monitor so she wouldn't see the mass in her abdomen. But on second thought she decided that it was best to face her fears and deal with whatever it was that she was about to fight and just as she turned toward the monitor she saw an oval with what looked like a little backbone trailing away from it. At the same moment the doctor announced she was carrying a baby and the whole moment was so overwhelming she said she felt dizzy.

Becky said she just about fell off the table. She said "are you sure" and he said "yes can't you see the spine"? And right away he asked if I'd like to know the sex of the baby. Of course she wanted to know and was so excited to be told it was a BOY!

They called Landis back into the room and Becky asked him what it looked like on the monitor but Landis said he didn't know.

She said "take a closer look" and then, very cautiously he asked, "a baby?" After his suspicions were confirmed he pumped his fists and with a super wide grin he said, "YES!"

Landis was so excited to be getting a baby brother. He later said he had been praying for years to have a baby brother but then gave up because he thought it wasn't going to happen.

We actually found out she was going to have our baby boy when she was 17 1/2 weeks into it.

We are so thankful to God for his blessings of children. The Bible says blessed is the man who's quiver is full!

The Lord knew that I needed a bass player!

Getting close to the due date I was scheduled to be gone for 21 days ministering in West Texas, Western Oklahoma and New Mexico. I canceled a couple of the first churches thinking the baby would be born soon. He didn't show up so on Saturday, March 5th, Landis, Hope, Faith and I left for Snyder, Texas leaving a very pregnant, very tearful Becky standing in the driveway in the pouring rain to be gone for 17 days with the due date right in the middle of that trip. Now, you'd think (as we did) that the 5th baby would come a little early, especially after the 4th baby came 2 weeks early!

We spent a lot of time on Skype during that trip and every night when Becky went to bed she set her webcam up so that when she went into labor, it would be ready to go and she could give us a call (after she called the midwife) and tell me "it's time!"

Now, when I left in on the 5th, I told Becky that the baby would wait to come until after we'd returned home. However, we both knew the chances of that happening were pretty slim.

So on Monday morning, March 21 we headed out from Amarillo with 965 miles between us and home. We anved at home at 10:45 PM Monday night and at 12:45 AM the contractions began. At 2:52 AM Justis Loy Bowen was born! See what I mean about God's timing?

We want to say thank you for your prayers and support of our family and our ministry. We couldn't do what we do without your prayers and financial support.

A lot of people have asked me if we needed anything. The only thing we need is diapers!

We have had several people send us a gift card from Walmart and other stores that sell diapers so we can go and buy them here in town. That would be awesome if you wanted to do something like that. God bless you for it.

As I close I ask you to continue to pray for The Bowen Family. We realize that time is running short. Jesus is coming soon! We all need to go tell people about Him and his saving grace.

Also please check out our schedule and if we are within driving distance of you please come see us. We'd love to see you!

One more thing, We have a new look to our website http://www.bobbybowen.com/

Blessings,

Bobby Bowen & Family