Introducing....

Eli Samuel....the newest member of our family!

I know, I know.  I have a lot of explaining to do.  A lot has happened in the last two months and it's not because I don't love you that I haven't written.  It's just that I had a major case of writer's block.

 It's happened to me before....writer's block.  It's a pesky hurdle to over come especially when there is so much to say.  So thank you to all of you who have emailed me to check up on us and to say you have been praying.  We needed it....your prayers and your encouragement!
Eli Samuel was born on Thursday, March 8th weighing in at 7lbs 5oz.   And we are just smitten.

Pssst......come close.  Really close.  I don't want to say this too loud.

But WE spent the last year praying that God would give us a little girl.  Yep, WE begged God for a girl.  Yep, WE wanted a girl.  So WE prayed for what WE wanted.

Interesting.....Eli's middle name is Samuel.  Samuel means "Asked of God." 

God has a sense of humor doesn't he?  Asked of God.  As Eli's birth mom sat pondering his middle name, I can't help but wonder if God (with a grin on his face) didn't knowingly whisper the name Samuel in her ear.

It's 3:52am and I need to attempt a few hours at sleep.  Not because Eli is up....no of course not.  God gives me the best sleeper ever (he wakes up only one time each night) and I still get hit with bouts of insomnia. Thankfully I learned a long time ago to not be discouraged by sleepless nights.

Know why?  It's through my sleepless nights that God often speaks the loudest (or maybe it's cause' I listen better at 3am with nothing else to do!).  It's almost impossible to lack for words when the house is clothed in darkness and all the crazy distractions of the world are held at bay until morning.

Eli... it means God is high.  It's also one of the last words uttered by Jesus on the cross. 

"Eli, Eli" or "My God, My God" (Matthew 27:46).

See, a lot happens in the sleepless wee hours of the morning.  It was in the wee hours of the morning that our Savior cried out to God while on the cross.  And it was in the wee hours of the morning that the Veil was torn and the earth was shaken. And even still, it was in the wee hours of the morning that you and I were adopted by God to be his sons and daughters. 

In the wee hours of the morning, you and I were given a way to come home, home to a forever Father in an eternal family.

PS - I still plan on writing more about Maggie, just not today. And maybe not tomorrow. But I will. Not because I have to but because I want to. I want to share our whole adoption story and not just the good parts. Because one day, someone out there will go through the same thing and she might just find solace in our journeys being similar.