celebrating january 22

kristie and i have a tradition of bringing donuts to each other in the hospital to celebrate each new baby. and being the silly women that we are, we also like to turn it into a little birthday party with candles and everything. :) (now our excuse is that the kids enjoy making it a party, but i'm not sure what our excuse was originally...) after we got settled in our room at the hospital, the party began! the 3 cousins looked so stinkin' cute all lined up on the end of my bed, and they had so much fun singing "happy birthday" to baby amelia. of course, caroline has been practicing this for who knows how long! and then out came the donuts. less than an hour before bedtime. but hey, i wasn't dealing with the kids that night. :) (haha, just kidding, mom!) for the record, i really only think they had 1/2 a donut each. but my new "mom of three kids" mantra is "i don't care". not about everything, but about things like donuts at 7:45 at night... especially on their sister's birthday! so anyway, after consuming x number of donuts, the kids were pretty wired. and the hospital room was pretty small. and though aunt kristie was so smart to buy a balloon for each of the kids, they all wanted the same one. go figure. those party animals quickly morphed into party poopers! so we kissed them good night and sent them home on a donut high. but it was a fun little birthday celebration for sweet baby amelia... i think she slept through every minute of it! and i managed to eat a donut and hold amelia without showering my newborn daughter in krispy kreme sprinkles!! oh the skills of motherhood. :) here's a few pictures from our birthday celebration...

here are the cousins piled up on my bed singing happy birthday.

this picture makes me laugh so hard. karina must have been
very paranoid about somebody snatching that donut! :)

sweet, sweet cousins. look at those identical little profiles!

here we are with amelia's wonderful aunt kristie!
thank you, auntie k, for the donuts!!
we are so thankful to God for such a precious reason to celebrate january 22nd. amelia has been a part of our family since the day we found out that i was pregnant with her. we have prayed for her and praised God for her little life that He was knitting together inside my womb. feeling amelia wriggle, watching my stomach bulge out as she pushed against my ever-growing belly, and seeing her grow through amazing ultrasound technology were all reminders that there was a child inside me. tonite at Bible study, brian pulled one of amelia's 34 week ultrasound pictures out of his Bible, and he put it right next to her sleeping in her car seat. we both grinned as we saw the same child on that paper as was sleeping contentedly next to us.

sadly, there are so many children in the womb who are not considered to be worthy of life, and their mothers make the horrible decision to terminate these precious lives. and they are celebrated and applauded and encouraged to do so. january 22 is roe v. wade day. abortion was legalized on amelia's birthday 36 years ago. while many feminists and pro-choice activists celebrate this day, christians and pro-life supporters use this day (and the whole week) to cry out for the sanctity of human life. i realize that birthing a baby on the anniversary of roe v. wade isn't exactly "fighting against abortion", but i guarantee you that amelia (and her siblings!) will understand the significance of her birthday and the horrible ramifications of that supreme court decision. and i pray that God will be glorified through the precious life of our baby girl, born on january 22.