Welcoming Emily Rose

“Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”

Psalm 40:5

We welcomed sweet Emily Rose into our family over six weeks ago now. Our fourth red-headed girl born with more hair than anyone else, this little one is so snuggly and smiley and looks just like her Daddy, from what I can tell.

Her birth was an interesting 19 hours filled with a car ride to the birth center (our first not-at-home birth!), nearly having her on the way there, and a chiropractic adjustment at hour 17 that finally did the trick. The Lord was so merciful and comforting through it all.

We brought Emily home to our other six blessings who were well loved and cared for while we were gone… and so excited to meet their littlest sister! Hannah calls her Rosie and her high-energy little self has me constantly on the lookout.

Five of the children came down with one of the worst stomach bugs I’ve seen in a while throughout her first week home with us. It was also 104 degrees on the day she was born and rose to nearly 110 days later (if my blurry memory is correct) and so we hunkered down, thankfully with Daddy home from work for a couple of weeks to take care of all of us. We thank the Lord that he, Emily, and I were all spared from the stomach bug!

After Daddy went back to work, the children and I started school back up to finish this last school year and I began very slowly to put our home back together. I didn’t realize just how hard the last two months of this pregnancy were until I was no longer pregnant. I still have so much to catch up on.

So I guess all of that is to say this is why it has taken me six weeks to share this happy news with you all. As far as making, doing, and growing stuff… well, I made yogurt this morning and that’s about the extent of anything not related to family, school, and home. But perhaps I’ll share more on that at some point.

What I really want to tell you, friends, is how merciful and faithful the Lord has been to our family through all of this… through our 15 years of marriage and (almost) 14 years of parenthood, actually. Words would fail me if I were to try to express how good our God is; how every promise is true and sure. Time would run out if I began to tell you how He sustains and provides and comforts and heals His children.

Through the 12 hours of overnight labor with Emily, in the dark, through the pain, when I didn’t know why my very intense contractions were staying ten minutes apart; the Lord reminded me that He has delivered His people time and time again. He brought to mind a psalm the children and I had memorized some time ago with verse six particularly echoing in my soul:

After it was decided that we would head to the birthing center and call a chiropractor, Stewart and I had a quiet few minutes to just talk about how faithful God is before heading out. As my contractions stalled further and I continued to wonder what was going and and what might happen, it was so refreshing to my spirit to pray and talk with my husband of fifteen years and to praise our Savior and our Redeemer together. It was of the Lord that we left the house with me being at complete peace.

And then, five hours later, we met our sweet seventh child, our fourth red-headed daughter named Emily Rose.

I was going to say that things have been very busy, but they haven’t been. Full; our life, our hands, our hearts; they are all very, very full.