Our fifth baby is here! A boy, which now gives us a trio of little boys to keep our two precious big girls on their toes.
I find it hard to get my head around the events of the past week except to say that I was as incredulous and awed and so tremendously relieved at the birth of our gorgeous little boy Isaac as I was at the births of our four other children.
A child really is a miracle, an amazing and completely undeserved gift of God.
We don’t take for granted the fact that he was delivered healthy and safe either. There are so many things that can go wrong with pregnancy and during labour and delivery.
For us, there was some concern with his growth in utero and potential withdrawal problems after his birth because of medication I needed during my pregnancy.
And as Isaac emerged he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times.
A week later he is healthy, rapidly gaining weight, and has a keen interest in his surrounds. He loves to study the faces of his siblings, and each of them has welcomed him so sweetly in his or her own way.
Naomi and Hannah remember Jacob as a baby, but for Joachim it is all new and he is especially in awe at this complete human being in miniature who has come to share life with us.
He came to visit me in bed as I fed Isaac yesterday, wiggling as gently as he could to settle himself alongside us without disturbing us.
“He’s got tiny little fingers,” he commented.
“Yes, he has.”
“And this tiny little nose. And tiny little toes. And tiny ears.”
“Yes. They’re cute aren’t they?”
Then his eyes widened.
“Maybe he even has little ear wax, do you think, Mummy? And little nose postels?”
“What?”
“Nose postels,” and he made a gesture of digging a nugget out of one of his nostrils.
“Oh, yes, I suppose so.”
Indeed, the Lord has done great things for us.