Safe arrival of Johanna Joy!!

She's here!! Friday night around 10 pm precious Johanna arrived safe and healthy. She weighed 8lb 3 oz, 21 inches long. The birth story is a very *long* story.. But the short version is that Dr. James got the unique privilege of delivering her! He did a fantastic job, and the Russian midwife arrived about 15 minutes later to finish up the job. Although circumstances that happened during the birth are certainly not what we would have planned for beforehand.. we could not help but praise God afterwards that every detail of the birth was wonderful and we know planned by her Creator.

We chose the name Johanna because we loved the meaning 'God is Gracious' - that seemed to be the theme for us this year through sometimes difficult circumstances.. God was always present and always gracious to us. Our special verse for Johanna came from Numbers 6:24-26 'The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.' We are praying this for the life of precious Johanna Joy. We also like the name in Russian.. pronouced 'Yo-anna' or you can even call her Yanna or Yanitchka.

The kids were SO excited to hear that their baby sister had finally arrived. Rachel carassed her hair, kissed her toes & hands and proclaimed her 'the sweetest, cutest baby she'd ever seen.' David took a long look at her and asked 'are you sure it's not a boy?? It looks like a boy?' Caleb got so excited he ran around and promptly poked his finger in Johanna's eye... but then he did manage to slow down enough to give her some sweet kisses on the top of her head.

Thank you to those who were praying for us!! It means SO much to know that people were praying for us during the birth. Here's a few pictures.. but more will come tomorrow I promise. (actually the pics didn't turn out too great.. sorry we were just a bit busy today though :)

Rejoicing,
James, Susan, Rachel, David, Caleb & Johanna Joy