Our precious little bundle is three weeks old today!!
After a very quick and intense labor Vienna Faith Maxwell was born on February 12th at 4:57pm weighing 7Ibs 7oz.
Absolute perfection.
We are so in love with our little Via.
Adjusting to a family of 7 has gone smoother than I could of hoped for. It hasn't been without it's overwhelming moments, but she has already blessed our lives beyond measure and, I know I've said this after our adoptions as well, but we seriously can't imagine our family without her now.
She just fits with us... so perfectly.
She is such a happy and laid back baby
She can sleep through absolutely anything. Probably because she is used to all the craziness that she could hear happening outside the womb.
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| I tried to get a picture of my matching daughters, but well, you can tell how that went ;) |
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| Emma's still not quite sure what to make of her baby sissy. |
Also, thank you to everyone who has blessed us with meals, encouragement, gifts, and groceries while I was on bed rest and since we brought our precious blessing home. I am brought to tears when I think of how blessed we are by our community.
You guys love us so well, thank you will never be enough. Please know we love you and couldn't do our life well without you.
Most importantly, thank you Jesus for seeing fit to bless us with our fifth baby. I am overwhelmed with a mixture of sorrow and gratitude when I remember how scared, and angry I was at times, of this perfect miracle. Does she make our life harder? Yes, but I've come to realize that every eternal blessing will cause us to give up some easy in one form or another.
Unconditional love will always cost us something.
It's when we open our clenched hands...
It's when we surrender our easy...
or even surrender our hard for something even harder...
that we find a meaningful life.
I came across this post on facebook a while back and what Jim Gaffigan said really struck me.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan has 5 children; here's how he answers the "Why so many?!" question:
“Well, why not? I guess the reasons against having more children always seem uninspiring and superficial. What exactly am I missing out on? Money? A few more hours of sleep? A more peaceful meal? More hair? These are nothing compared to what I get from these five monsters who rule my life. I believe each of my five children has made me a better man. So I figure I only need another thirty-four kids to be a pretty decent guy."
Each of our kids have a very unique story about how they came to be in our family. I can tell you that we don't consider any of our kids "planned" by us. Each of them has changed our lives dramatically, but they've changed our hearts even more dramatically.
It's not the perfect family photo I was hoping for. Life with 5 kids never really goes the way we plan, but we have found so much joy and beauty in the craziness. So although we may never get another picture with everyone smiling at the camera (or even looking at it), we wouldn't trade this crazy life for picture perfect for anything.
