Not Quite a Normal Thankful Thursday...

 

Josiah, two and a half weeks old...

Isn't he precious?!

I can either post a Thankful Thursday, or write a post about what happened earlier this month. I can't do both in a timely fashion, haha ;). So, I'm going to change things up a little bit this week, and highlight the things that I'm thankful for this week, while I write you out a news report. Sound fair? Good. 'Cause that's all you're getting ;). Heehee! I'm actually thinking of doing it this way from now on- tell me what you think, but I'm not sure why I haven't done it before, haha :).

 

Most people tell us he looks like Peter, but we have 

the idea he looks like Abbi- though he looked like Andrew

at first. Let's just say, that we all look unique, but it's sometimes

hidden by shared characteristics ;). Love that baby yawn :)...

Josiah arrived on March 31st (giving my Gramma the last birthstone she needed in her mother/grandmother's bracelet to have all twelve months, just as she wished!), after an emergency c-section. Josiah and Mommy were in very critical conditions for a while, but praise the Lord, he had everything in control, and he allowed them to stay here! It was really hard to not have them home while they were at the hospital, the last three little ones have been born at home, and we love that family time with a new little one! But we are so thankful that they were able to go to the hospital since it was needed, even if it wouldn't be our ideal. They were gone for three very long days, but thankfully Josiah was discharged from the NICU (where he had been being giving IV's), and we got to go and see them, April 1st :). 

Little Seaweed, on this side of the womb :). One week old :)!

(You want some fun trivia ;)? Josiah was born in March, giving him an aquamarine birthstone. He was also born in "national week of the ocean" week, while above his bed in the NICU were starfish and seahorse tiles. Abbi told us "Ew! His umbilical cord looks like a little black fish!"... hmm, a fish coming out of seaweed. In honor of the fact that Josiah seems to have a thing for the ocean already, we watched "Finding Nemo" for our first family movie night as a family of ten ;)... and one of Mommy's friend's sent *the cutest* hat a couple days ago, I can't wait to share pictures of him in it!). Abbi also asked Daddy to take a flower to Mommy for her, and Daddy took a daffodil- which he found out later was the flower for March :). As if that wasn't enough, Mommy looked up the meaning of his name again (she was going to use the meaning she originally found, "fire of the Lord", but just wanted to know what it was in Hebrew), and found that it was "Jehovah has healed". How appropriate and precious! So there is all of Josiah's trivia from his two and a half week old life!

People offered up so many prayers for us that week, and offered so much help! Our neighbor headed over as soon as she saw the ambulances at our house that night he arrived, and stayed with us children, praying with us, and reading to the little girls while Tori and I made phone calls and wrote facebook messages to people asking for prayer, until we heard that everything appeared to be okay.  She then went home, but continued to check on us each day until Mommy, Daddy, and Josiah got home, to see how we were doing (and drop off a chocolate cake- a cake several ounces larger than the baby. It was the best cake I think I have ever tasted. And lasted for several days. Ha!). Since then she has been over a couple times to see the baby... and invited us children over to her house a couple times. Abbi especially loves her, and could go over there everyday. She is such a social butterfly ;). Peter is adorable with her cats, I love how he loves animals! Gramma and Aunt Donna also called that night, just to talk to us (and make sure the doors were locked... mother hens across the states ;). Love you both!)... and to tell us that if they had been here, they would be sending us "pictures via phone- oops, waiting up with" us. (Yes, I caught that Gramma. And a look at his birth time, and the fact that my phone received your call 13 minutes later, confirms that you knew before us. Heeheehee ;). I don't mind ;).)

 This may very well be my favorite "portrait" picture

of him, taken the Sunday after he arrived :)... Although he 

has grown almost a pound since it was taken!

Daddy called us at about eleven to know that our little brother had arrived :)!!! We were all so excited that it was a boy :)... Andrew was excited to get to call Grandpa and Grandma to tell them, I felt kind of bad for Grandpa, because he wanted to know the name before he went to bed, and we didn't know at that point, heehee ;).

When the ambulance had arrived at our house, Daddy had taken it to the hospital to be with Mommy. One of Tori and mine first thoughts after we heard that Mommy and baby were doing alright (and got my phone to turn on- because I wasn't about to even think about the car before I got the phone turned on after it have been out of charge for several hours unknown to me... learned my lesson!), was that Daddy didn't have a car. I let Tori know, on no uncertain terms, that this was the one and only time I had ever had a desire to drive, and I meant it, haha! I truly had no clue what we were going to do... truthfully, the hospital isn't *that* far, Daddy has walked to a doctor's office from our house before so that he could be with Mommy and Andrew when Andrew needed stitches, I have no doubt that he would have walked home to get the van and check up on us if need be, but I wasn't thinking clearly that night ;). But one of Daddy's Lifeway employees came to pick up our van for us at eleven thirty that night so Daddy could get back and forth between the hospital and home :). That was such a blessing! Daddy actually got home in the really, really early hours of the morning (read: too early for my Grandparents to be up quite yet, but to late to be called late at night.), and gave us a bit of an update (and lots of hugs!), checked up on things, and grabbed some stuff that they needed and didn't have since they hadn't planned on going to the hospital.

Everyone pitched in to keep up the house. I was so thankful for the way everybody just jumped right in! And Mommy had kept the house so thoroughly cleaned for the three weeks leading up to this month, that it was fairly easy to keep it presentable... Unless we happened to be eating melted cheese sandwiches on buns that I had (randomly!) made to store in the freezer a couple weeks before. Which we happened to be doing when Miss Mary dropped off the cake the second day. But she didn't seem to mind, haha ;). My Grandma had sent us a delicious, easy recipe a couple weeks before, and I decided to attempt that (it came out really good, though I'm not sure I cook the rice right, haha! I was doing it by memory, I couldn't find our recipe for that), and we did mac'n'cheese in the crock pot the next day, I was very glad for the crock pot ;).

We decided that day, April first, to just keep everything cleaned up, and then read most of the morning, after our cinnamon rolls- with blue icing ;)!... Peter was adorable listening to "Horton Hatches the Egg" :). After lunch, I turned off the computer, which I had kept open all day in case Daddy or Gramma sent us an update, and we all went upstairs and settled down to watch a movie (me with my second cup of coffee... ahem. What? It was decaf!). About halfway through it, Miss Mary dropped by, and after she left, I checked the computer "just for"... and found a picture and video of Josiah that had been posted *right after* I left... my friend and I actually saw it at the exact same time, heehee :). They had taken them when Mommy finally got to meet Josiah after they had been separated all night... We just oohed and awwwed at the picture, and then I found the video and we watched it twice right away :). Then the little ones went upstairs and finished their movie, but I just sat and watched the video a couple more times, and completely lost it, haha. The thought that it could be days before we saw Josiah and heard Mommy in person was hard, but I was so utterly thankful that we could do both anyway through fb and email.  After I thought I had calmed down, I called my friend Kaitlyn, and lost it again, heeheehee. I was a mess at this point, heehee, but Kaitlyn was very understanding and encouraging... I told her I had a new glimmer at what it was like when her Mom was at the hospital for several weeks before and after her brother was born, haha ;)! I talked to her, and Miss Mary, and our Grandparents, on the phone several times over those days... I think that God was thinking about this when he prompted Mommy to tell me I should call some of my friends to talk, last September. I had a phobia of the phone then, but it's pretty much gone at this point after talking on the phone pretty much weekly since then, thank goodness, haha!

Josiah finally made it down to Mommy's room that afternoon :)! A little while later, Daddy called us and informed us that he was coming to pick us up to meet Josiah and see Mommy :)!!! He arrived home carrying in mail... with a letter for Abbi from our Grandparents, which thrilled her :), a magazine for Mommy, and the book "One Thing I Desire", by Sarah Bryant that I won in a giveaway a couple months ago (which is, by the way, a wonderful book, at least the fifty something pages I've found time to read :).) mixed in :). It had been a while since we got that many goodies at once in the mailbox, heehee ;). We headed out the door with the flowers that Aunt Donna had sent Mommy March 31st... before she knew that Josiah was on the way! In fact, she had tried to get them delivered two days before, but hadn't been able to!

 Beautiful :)...

 Actually holding him (I helped Peter first ;).) for the first time...

He is just the most precious little boy, and he was so tiny that first week!

 ♥

On the way to the hospital Daddy called Granny to give her an update. We got to the hospital and got to get our first in person look at the precious little one in our family, hug Mommy, and tell Mommy and Daddy all about what was going on at home. He was (is!) so precious! He had long, tiny little fingers, and he has a precious little nose :)... and a high pitched cry, just like Andrew and Peter. That is kind of funny :). Peter was scared of the hospital, I felt so bad for him, he didn't enjoy that visit at all... he got next to no time with Mommy, because he was *terrified* of her bed! But I think he finally made the connection between "Seaweed" and "Mommy's baby" ("Josiah" came after they got home ;).), because he did next to nothing that evening and the next morning but eat and watch Josiah's video... :).

 "Seaweed! Baby!"

 "Mommy! Mommy! There!" he would say, every. single. time. 

that it hit this spot. I don't know why, but he did!

 "Baby, on! On!"

And this would be Peter silently telling

 us that we don't move fast enough ;)...

He was very disturbed, about halfway out to the van, when he realized we had left Mommy. We tried to explain that they weren't coming, and he must have gotten it, because he waved goodbye. But he was so very clingy that night!

 Love this one, heehee :)...

Josiah developed a small case of jaundice the next day, but thankfully it never got bad enough for him to need to be back in the NICU, or even need the lights when he came home! That day, Daddy dropped in, but we stayed here. We could be very thankful that day, that the dryer wasn't permanently ruined by the plastic tablecloth we melted in it :P, that we had peppermint oil, and that we knew to use it, when ants invaded our fireplace, that the light bulb just burnt out when Bethi hit it, not broke... and that the computer router didn't end up in the puddle of water any earlier in the adventure. It was a bit of a day of misadventures. We had chocolate cake to recover ;)... But we were all looking forward to Daddy, Mommy and Josiah arriving home the next day :)...

 This is BEFORE the cake...

They got home! at about 1 p.m. the next day. Oh, the squeals and shouts were enough to deafen anybody ;). I had kept it a surprise from the little girls that it was a sure thing that they were getting home that day, but the rest of us were just biting the bit, haha :). Tori had made up a cute little sign, and we had blown up a few "It's a Boy!" balloons, that we had saved from when Andrew was a baby. Andrew, as well, made a sign before they got home... came and asked me if he could put it on Mommy's bed. "Yes, she'll love it, it's really nice!" I said aloud, silently wondering why he would ask me if he could put it on Mommy's bed. Well, we found it later, taped to her headboard. That would explain why he asked. But, I did give him permission, I can't deny it...

Daddy helped Mommy and Josiah into the house, and then ran to pick some stuff up for Mommy, while we all got a chance to hold little Josiah. He is precious in every way! He didn't eat well for the first few days, probably due to the fact that the nurses kept taking him to check this or that during feedings, when he already wasn't learning quickly anyway, but he quickly learned once Mommy and Daddy could work with him without interruptions. Now he has no problem, and eats often ;). He gained about twice as much as the doctors expected him to, in about four days less time! Haha :). Daddy was able to take off from work for a week, which was a huge blessing! His store is understaffed at the moment, but they made sure he got to stay home for as long as they could!

Things are going really well right now. We have had several people bring over meals- most of those meals lasting for two to three meals (Peter's favorite happens to be the two meals with cookies... cookie monster that he is ;)!), offering help and encouragement, and prayers, and just rejoicing with us... and we are so thankful to all of you for that! Josiah is doing great now, and Mommy is feeling much better, and we are so thankful for God's hand through this!

I'll try to come back with a post with more than one recent picture, and some "new" news, later. But for right now, I've got to go make a shopping list for Peter-bug's birthday on Tuesday :)!

It's loud here... what can we say? Haha :).