Happy Birthday, Selah!

Dear Selah turned 7 on the 20th!  She was so excited to receive her “big girl” Bible!  It is a John MacArthur Study Bible.  Daddy and Mommy have made a tradition of getting each of us one when we are able to read it on our own!  Before that we use an old one that used to belong to Mommy when she was a girl.  We’ve all used it, but we’ve all really enjoyed getting our own, too!  Selah loves reading aloud at family worship!  It is fun to be an older sister and watch the little ones growing!

She also got her Twinn doll, which she loves!  It looks a lot like her, too!

Unfortunately, we still have a lot of coughing in the house, so Daddy and Mommy instituted an “absolutely no sugar” rule until everyone is better.  We’ll have to do a 2nd cake and ice cream (first Calvin’s, then Selah’s) after everyone is better!  For Selah’s birthday, we simply made Sugar-Free Sugar Cookies with Stevia.  They were pretty good!  I think we found our new sugar cookie recipe!

Birthday Girl

Birthday Prayer

Gifts

posted by the blessed sister of 12 and aunt to 2 - Sarah

Sweet Adelina

Adelina decided to make an early appearance!  She was born on Saturday, December 15, at 4:27pm, weighing 7lbs, 6oz and was 201/2 in long. Adelina means “Under God’s Guidance” and Jubilee means “jubilent, joyful.”  Adelina was also the name of a beautiful and brave, Godly princess, who was the young daughter of Irish missionaries in the 700s, but was taken by the Herzog (ruler) of Bavaria as wife.  Her courage and Christian kindness eventually won him over and propogated the growth of Christianity through the Culdean Church (early Church of Ireland and Scotland).  She was a truly noble and righteous woman and our prayer is that our Adelina will grow into a righteous, Godly woman who handles adversity so well as her namesake.  God has already brought Adelina through much tribulation, with the healing of her esophagus in the early weeks, all the way through the blood sugar issues at the end.

Mommy’s blood sugars did not do well in the last weeks/months of her pregnancy.  She ended up having to go on insulin to control her sugars in hopes that it would not affect Adelina as much.  Mommy had a high-risk ultrasound about 10 days before Adelina was born.  They weighed Adelina in at nearly 8 pounds (just a little off).  However, their bigger concerns were that Adelina would have issues with her blood sugar and possibly have shoulder dystocia (since Mommy has already had one baby with this problem, it apparently increases her risk for future dystocias).  With blood sugar being a big issue, Mommy’s sweet midwife did not feel comfortable delivering at home and recommended that we use the OB we had been seeing for backup.  The decision was made to induce on Monday, December 17, which would put Adelina at 38 weeks exactly.

Mommy went into labor on her own Friday afternoon and was very excited!  Daddy and Mommy headed to the hospital, but as it turns out, Mommy couldn’t have delivered at home anyway, since quite a bit of help was needed.  It was a long and hard labor for her, but she is very happy, excited, and blessed to have Adelina here, safe and healthy.  Mommy is recovering much slower this time...please keep her in your prayers.

While Daddy and Mommy were at the hospital, our friends the “Henrys” came and stayed with us. We had a very good time with them - it is always such a blessing to have them stay with us! 

We're so glad to have our little princess here!  What a blessing!  Praise the Lord!

posted by the blessed sister of 12 and aunt to 2 - Sarah