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See more photos of Thomas here

Meet Me in St. Louis

The picture to the left is an areal photo of the St. Louis arch. The parking garage pictured just up from the arch is where Heather's water broke on November 25th, 2006. Heather and I were looking forward to seeing the arch up close with our friends Kevin and Shannon. Instead, six hours later we were meeting our son, Thomas Allan Friesen, for the first time. Determined not to be an Iowa native, Thomas was born 5 weeks early in St. Louis, Missouri where we were visiting our friends from Pasadena, California. He was a mere 5 lbs., 5oz. and 17.5 inches long. Though it certainly wasn't how we planned it, it was a wonderful experience and I think it prepared us a little more for the spontaneous and unexpected nature of parenting. Needless to say I will never forget Thanksgiving 2006. My friend Kevin gave Thomas the fitting nickname, "Archie", which I think will probably stick for quite some time. Hopefully I'll still have some time to blog as I head out in the uncharted waters of parenting.