I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their concern, love, and prayers over the course of our last pregnancy. We were humbled over and over again at particularly the prayer support.
This pregnancy was an amazing answer to prayer. During the entire time Melanie was pregnant, we asked God for a June birthday (full term) and a strong, healthy baby. Christina was born in June – on her due date to be exact. Hearing the nurses come through and say, “Happy Birthday, Christina” was such a joyful thing. It was a frequent reminder that her birthday was indeed in June. She was strong and healthy – all answers to prayer.
Melanie handled a very difficult labor well. The Lord blessed us with a great relationship with our care providers, all of whom shared and supported our desires for (in fact one even specialized in) an intervention-free, natural birth. However, a number of challenges arose including the baby being in distress, which culminated in a c-section.
It was amazing to be holding Christina not too long after her birth, marveling at her alertness and how well she was doing. Even as God directed events in ways we were hoping to avoid, He answered our prayers for a healthy baby!
Melanie is enjoying her best postpartum experience as she begins her recovery. Christina is doing great and is a most welcome addition to our household.
I had the privilege of being Mr. Mom for a week. It gave me a wonderful appreciation of all that Melanie accomplishes on a daily basis.
On a lighter note, I’d like to offer a parenting tip of the week. You’ll laugh, because I’m sure this is quite obvious to many of you. For years I’d struggled with how to teach the little girls to rub their hands together after getting soap on them before putting them back under the water. They tend to stick hands right into the water with no rubbing once I put soap on them. Part of it is logistics. They reach their hands out for soap and pull them back to “rub rub” them, which is where the stream of water is. Instantly, soap is rinsed off with no real skin contact. This week, all of a sudden, I realized that I could turn the water off as I squirted soap onto their hands. It works like this. Hands go into water. Then I grab the soap and turn the water off. Next I squirt soap into their hands as well as mine, “rub rub,” water back on, and rinse. Wow – so simple!
Finally, thank you for the encouragement on Abigail’s helmet. We’ve often marveled at the sharp-eyed blog readers. Yes, her helmet wasn’t adjusted correctly. I have no good excuse for that. I know how to adjust helmets; it simply hadn’t happened yet. You’ll be happy to know that her helmet is now correctly adjusted (see below picture)!
Again, thank you for the prayer support!
Love,
Nathan
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
–Micah 6:8
