My 4-week wonder woman

 Hosanna (Zanna) Joy hit 4 weeks today with a new weight of 10 lbs 8 oz.  If she continues to grow at this rate, at 10 years old, she'll be 248 pounds. Wow.

With her baby acne and rolly-polly thighs, she's the cutest baby ever. I love her.

Christmastime is here....

 A brief look in pictures.....early Saturday mornings.....this week's feature presentation...."The Lion King"...Toby says, "Too scary, mommy".

Zanna sleeping....during the day

 Our town's Christmas tree lighting ceremony! Utter chaos.....and not a flattering photo of anyone. :)

 Our Little Bedford Falls in our little town....this weekend - we're getting our Christmas tree!

The whirlwind of THREE!

Sorry for the delay in posting! Three kids under 5 has proven to be quite the adjustment! Every moment (except for this very moment) is consumed with nursing, changing, whining, conflict resolution, cooking, cleaning, or if we're lucky, sleeping. We've not been very lucky these days. :)

Despite exhaustion and loneliness, Tim and I are so thankful Hosanna is here....like Piper wrote (you can click on the link from last post), "its the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can't keep it in."


She's our precious gift and we feel so very privileged to be given another chance to glorify the 
Lord with her....that's our prayer anyway. 
Thank you for your continued prayers as we are still adjusting to some kind of routine....
We're enjoying our precious family so much....we are very blessed.


Although, I must be honest, the smells, sounds and sights coming from her are not particularly 
glorified. :)
I will keep this post short, as I have to go rescue the children.

We also need prayer for health, too, as Promise has been fighting a cough, belly ache, 
and other issues that she doesn't want the doctor to know about. :) 
Toby and Promise have been dealing with the "sharing mommy" issue pretty
well, although behaviors are beginning to come out...and they are not pretty....but normal, 
I suppose. It does make parenting a lot tougher, though! 
We are so enjoying our precious family...we are very privileged and blessed....certainly beyond 
what we could ever deserve.

Two weeks old and just perfect. :)

Be blessed.

Happy Birthday, Hosanna Joy!

 Our precious miracle #3 is here!
Hosanna Joy Stewart came perfectly into our arms Friday, November 2 at 9:12 am weighing 8 lbs. and sporting 51 cm long. She's got a full head of dark brown hair and has already showed signs of a strong personality....opinionated about everything! :)

 We named her Hosanna for a variety of reasons, but Tim found a great word study done by John Piper on Hosanna. Click here to read: http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper83/032783e.htm

The longer birth story will be in a later post, but here is the brief synopsis.  I started labour on Wednesday night but it was very sporadic.  We knew impending doom was coming though.  On Thursday I laboured with some dear friends who go to Promise's preschool.  They were a little nervous to ride in the car with me; I was driving.  But things really didn't get active until about 5pm when I could no longer give undivided attention to the kids, so Toby threw trucks at me during contractions in his rage.  So I asked Tim to come home and we called the midwife.

Left the kids with grandma Christina and headed off to the hospital to get the first bout of antibiotics.  At 8pm they admitted me; I was 4cm.  After a loooong and sloooowww labour, at 8:45am I felt it was time to push this sucker out but my midwife told me not to.  So I waited very begrudgingly and tried not to push.  At 9am I'd had enough and it was time to push.  Three contractions and Hosanna came out without a tear!

There were cries of joy and excitement as our healthy baby girl breathed her first.  We are so grateful she is strong and healthy.  Grandma brought Toby and Promise by to meet there new sister.  They were very sweet and gentle and Toby declared "She's cute!" and then asked if he could pet her.  Promise started to tell us the agenda for when we took Hosanna home, which included babysitting her and teaching her to crawl and walk.

They discharged us from the hospital with a clean bill of health on Saturday around noon.  We'd love your prayers as we adjust to the chaos of home life with three kids under five.  Specifically, it would be nice if Hosanna would sleep at night, not just during the day.  We're so grateful for all the well-wishes, prayers and support of you all.  We are amazed at God's faithfulness.

Be blessed.