Welcome Elijah Jaiden Smith

We are so pleased to introduce to you the newest member of the Smith family! Elijah Jaiden was born into this world on Monday May 18th at 6:47am. He weighed 8lbs 11oz and was 20 in long. He looked just like his brothers did when they were born. There is no question that he is one of our children! He is a joy to us and we are so blessed to finally have him here in our arms.

This week has been a blur really and I can't believe that he is almost a week old. We are trying to figure out what this new "normal" is for us and everyone seems to be adjusting well. We forgot how often a baby eats, and needs to be changed. There isn't much else that happens with him at this point, but he has started to keep his eyes open longer and will look at us in wonder as we talk and smile at him.

I am again reminded that we have been given a great responsibility to care for one of God's children. We are excited to see how he will grow and change and can't wait to discover what his personality will be. For today though we are grateful that he is healthy, that he is here and that he is ours. I have posted a couple of pictures from the past couple of days so that you can see him. Welcome Elijah - we love you!

Honest

Gabriel and I were watching the movie "Underdog" this afternoon and there is this part when the "mad scientist" calls himself a humble genius.

Gabriel looks at me and says "Hey mom, that's me!"

"What's you?"

"I'm a genius, right mom?"

"Right Gabriel" "Are you humble too?"

"Oh no!" he says emphatically

All I can say is at least he is honest! He cracks me up!!

I am an auntie!

If you haven’t already heard, I am an auntie again!! Beth and Jeff welcomed beautiful Isabel Megan into the world at 2:34am Saturday May 9th! She was an amazing 9lbs and 21.5 inches long. Praise God for a healthy baby!! I promise that I will get a photo up as soon as possible – our computer at home was not allowing me to download the photos the other day!

Isabel is adorable though and such a calm and sweet girl. It makes me very excited to meet our son – hopefully VERY soon! What a blessing that will be to have 2 new babies at our family dinners on Thursdays!

I am so proud of Beth too. Being a new mom really is scary. You don’t really know all the questions to ask until you come across a situation that you don’t know how to handle! But Beth is doing a great job asking questions and learning how to be more flexible! It is so much fun to see her and Jeff in their new roles and I know that they will give Isabel a wonderful home.

I remember with Isaac that I really had no clue what to expect. Add to that we were young parents, in our last year of college, broke most of the time and selfish individuals. We weren’t prepared for what a change this would mean for our lives and still so selfish that we both didn’t consider each other’s needs as parents and as husband and wife like we should have.

But God had a way of redeeming that time and making something beautiful out of it. We are in such a different place in our lives now it is hard to believe how we have changed. Are we perfect? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! But we both are seeking to be better people individually and together that I know some of those struggles we had before will be managed better.

And we know where we need to turn in the difficult times to gather strength. God has promised us that if we seek Him together and make Him the center of our home that He will guide our path, He will redeem what once was broken and make it whole. We just have to be willing to turn over the reigns.

What a promise and a gift. So as I struggle to be patient in waiting for our little one to arrive, I will remember that all of this was made possible by a God that has been patient with us time and time again, a God that loved us and called us to Him. A God that chose us to be this little ones parents. It is well worth the wait!

Gabriel makes me laugh!

Last night we had dinner with my parents and Beth and Jeff. It has become a tradition of sorts to get together once a week and have a meal and we all enjoy it. My dad picked up the kids for us and so we met at their house after work.

Gabriel came up to me when I got there, put his hands on my belly and said "Mom, are you Santa Claus?"

We all started laughing and I asked him if he thought I looked like Santa Claus.

He throws his head back, laughs and says "Mom, Santa doesn't have a baby in his tummy!"

It was too funny - leave it to Gabriel to come up with something like that!! First a giant meatball, then Santa...what's next?