Yes, I've neglected my blog. Which really tells a story all in itself about how this past year went. But I think when you adopt and give birth within 6 months of each other, you are off the hook from documenting every glorious moment of motherhood. You are just too busy living it. Our family has grown from 2 kids to 5 in the last two years, and I'm pretty much holding on for dear life trying to keep up with it!
But I do hope to get back to writing. To sharing what God is doing in our family, and in my heart as I am stretched and pulled and challenged like never before. I want to tell of Samuel's story of adoption, and how he is finally and officially our boy forever. But, for now, I re-enter the blogging world with an introduction to our newest family member, Kyrie Joy.
And what a joy she is.
I almost stopped breathing when I found out I was pregnant with her. How would we manage? 5 kids in 6 years? Maybe for a tougher mother, someone with insane amounts of patience and endless optimism. I was barely keeping up with the 4 we had.
Yet, from that first moment, mixed right in there with those feelings of fear and doubt, was joy. Excitement over this new life. Anticipation over what she would look like, who she would be. Hope for the future of our family with this new little person added to it. Another miraculous gift from God. And how I longed that she would make it into this world safely. Yes, right from the beginning, she was ever-so-wanted.
It was a blissful pregnancy. Perfect in every way. What a gift (and, again, I stop and thank God for that!). I felt great, loved feeling her move inside me, and my 2 littlest boys blessed me with 3-hour naps most days, so I often slept right along with them. I'm sure there were rough patches, but 3 months out and I'm already romanticizing it, so I'm just going to go ahead and dub it my favorite pregnancy.
Her entrance into this world was either my fastest labor, or my longest...I'm still not sure. It was weeks of laboring, but not the painful, think-I'm-gonna-die kind. Eight days past her due date (and after weeks of thinking she would arrive any moment!), my doctor broke my water...and about 40 minutes later we were holding our baby girl. She was loud, and never has a cry sounded more beautiful.
8 lbs, 5 ounces of perfection. And looking so much like her oldest brother.
From the cute little name card that rested in her bassinet at the hospital:
Kyrie Joy
The LORD is our joy!
Kyrie {KEER-ee-ay} is greek for The Lord, and I felt strongly that God placed her name on my heart early in the pregnancy. Long before we knew we were having a baby girl, I dreamt of her by name. With each rub of my belly, and every wistful thought about who she might be, I could not get this name out of my head...she has always been Kyrie to me. Kyrie is an abundant gift from our Lord, and we pray that she will be a constant reminder of His goodness and grace in our life.
Her middle name, Joy, is shared with her cousin Morgan and keeps with our tradition of using family names for our kids' middle names. Above all, it reminds us that in any and every circumstance, in blessing and in pain, our joy is found in the Lord alone.
May her life reflect the joy we have in the Lord, and may she point us back to Him with each day we share with our beautiful Kyrie Joy.
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
{Psalm 126:3}
