Our Little Fire

Right after my last post announced "no baby," those jokester evening hours brought us one.





(first hospital solo snapshot)



We chose his name after meeting him.

Aidan Raphael-- Little Fire, God Has Healed-- was born May 29th at 8:35 p.m., weighed a whopping six pounds even, and measured 19 inches long from tip to toe.








His face is sweet enough to melt the stoniest heart.








We are thankful for his safe arrival most of all.  The birth was as good as I could have hoped-- a third successful VBAC, an understanding nurse who mostly left me alone and allowed me to labor naturally the way I wish, a husband-friend to keep me company, and a doctor who arrived just in time to catch Aidan so John didn't have to.  I'm relieved and thankful that God orchestrated all that we cannot control, from the first moment through the present.  These are the easy blessings to accept, and I don't take them for granted.




(Phone photo from John. I had no clue, of course, being a little distracted by the baby born immediately before.)


Here's another photo from John's phone of some handsome stranger holding our child.

I was so bored in the hospital-- tiny baby!-- waiting for my Heart to come back.







He took a quick nap right before departure.  Thanks for the stylish, going-home outfit, Owen family!






 John took these pictures with his phone shortly after we got home.  I love them.
The best papa with Big Head and Little Fire.

Us and Baby and Pip.

 

And here are the girls holding him for the first time.  The pictures don't do any of their love and excitement justice. Sweet, sweet girls.

 

 

 

 

 

We got home on Saturday afternoon, and Sunday was a whirl of a day with a church picnic, a birthday party for little Scout, the birth day of our own sweet Piper Joy, and a baptism most joyful of our newest child.

John is home all week and has been making meals and working hard on garden preparation that I didn't manage to do while stuck in the hospital.  I've been working a bit and resting well, but, mostly, just staring at this Little Fire warm and bright in the sunshine.

 

 

(He doesn't look this chubby or large in real life.  Close-ups do that to everyone, even tiny babies.)