With much joy we announce:

Declan Yeshua __________ arrived Tuesday, August 28th at 12:49 pm.

Here are some tidbits:

We are home and we are all doing well.
THANK YOU all for all of your prayers and well wishes!
The kids ADORE their new brother, especially Seamus... so many cute stories about his interaction with his new baby brother.

Some details:

~ His name is Declan Yeshua ___________ . Declan means "man of prayer" and Yeshua is the Hebrew form of Joshua/Jesus and means "the Lord saves". The Lord has truly been with us and blessed us and carried us through the past couple of years (and, really, all of the years of our lives) that we thought it fitting for his name to signify that our children are really His.

~ The only reason I went to the hospital when I did was because I had some bloody show; I wasn't having regular contractions (though they would appear regular a couple of times through the night). But it was good that I did because the contractions kicked in quickly and his heart rate kept dropping down to 60 BPM with every contraction; he was having some major "decels". If I hadn't already been at the hospital when that was happening it could have quickly become a dangerous situation. They gave me medicine to stop the contractions and the (AWESOME!) nurse worked to manually get rid of the little bit of my cervix that was left, got the doctor in the room, pushed once, he came out with the cord wrapped 2xs (!) around his neck. One more push and a vacuum suction and he was out. I still wasn't completely dilated, but they had to get him out.

~ He weighs a tiny 5 lbs and 11 oz. And is 19" long. By the time we left the hospital, he was 5 lbs and 5 oz. His diaper is the size of my palm. But his size is a blessing, because if he had been larger, the cord would have wrapped even more tightly around his neck.

Really, the Lord's timing is so amazing. He was just under 3 weeks early, but I had prayed for a clear sign that it was time to go to the hospital. He gave that sign to me and my baby was safe from a potentially dangerous situation. Praise God!

(his one-eye-peek)

*For anyone who has placed an order in the past week, I will have proofs to you within the next day*