ANNOUNCING...Charles David Toves

Our beautiful grandson was born at 5:55 PM and (just like his Grammy estimated Sunday afternoon when I "midwifed around" and spent some time feeling Hannah's belly for baby size.) he weighed almost 8# 8 oz..........he was 8#, 5.75 oz and was 21 inches long, also my estimation! Everything went SO well, her contractions really didn't kick in till early after noon, she was completely dilated by 4:25, and shortly thereafter began that pushing stage to bring Charlie into the world. Even with an epidural which Hannah decided she wished she hadn't had after all, she was so in tune with her body and how to make it do what she needed it to!!! The nursing staff was wonderful and so laid back,so supportive of the Gramma/Midwife and midwifery in general. An old friend of mine was working L&D today, she too is now a midwife, but working as an L&D nurse, and was part of Hannah's care team.It was WONDERFUL! The kids got to come up and see Hannah during the day. I was so blessed to be with Hannah and Jon all day long . Although Jael was in the waiting room until just minutes after the birth, Hannah told Esther it was OK if she stayed in the birthing suite. Hannah had said earlier "NO PHOTOS," then as the day progressed,
"well OK" so Esther took the role of photographer, and she did an EXCELLENT JOB !!
She was able to stay for the whole labor and birth, although she did miss two classes, for which I felt badly, but she was in absolute amazement at the whole miracle of birth as she witnessed it with the camera.We had been talking with out of state daughter Kari on the phone and I had the phone at my ear while I was helping Hannah. As she delivered Charlie, Kari was able to "be there" by phone. I won't go graphic here, but Esther's photos are book quality! Jon's mom Karen, Esther and I were all SO blessed to be part of this wonderful day with Hannah and Jon! How I loved it when Jon asked me if I wanted to hold Charlie ( I told him I was waiting to be asked!) and I took my new grandson in my arms and praised God for him and prayed for blessings all over him and a prayer of dedication of his new life and his life in his family.
Family and friends converged on the Labor suite within 30 minutes of Charlie's birth and it was pretty non-stop for over an hour, but most only stayed a while. When you have a huge loving family on BOTH the Mommy and the Daddy's sides, and both are well loved by many friends, having little or no company is a bit out of the question, but people were considerate. All the immediate Grand-family, aunts and uncles left just as the wave of friends began. Baby Charlie is GREAT GRAND BABY # 13 for Jon's Gramma Lou. HOW precious it was to see her loving on the new arrival! We called my mom pretty soon after Charlie had arrived and she too was so thrilled!!! This is her first bio-great grand child. I'm sure we'll work something out to get her a visit soon.
WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hannah, all settled in to her room for the REAL LABOR DAY!




I didn't get the photo I planned to later on in the day, with two computers, 5 cell phones and three cameras sitting on this table, but Jon with his computer kind of sums it up!!




Labor Hannah style: cell phone and orange popcicles




Esther and Caleb , hanging out in the Labor Suite



Yes, that is Pappa Charlie hugging Hannah



WOW a photo of Hannah and her mom!!!



Big sister Little sister bonding


more sister bonding


Another sister bonding moment






Cutting the cord. Jon's mom, Gramma Karen in the background




A very proud Mommy and Daddy with their son



Pretty cone-headed for now!




A tender Daddy -son moment


Baby Charlie looking amazingly like Uncle Isaac!!!!!


Pappa Charlie holding Baby Charlie, Grammy looks on, just a bit pleased!

almost baby time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hannah is almost ready to have Baby Charlie!Its 3:50 PM and she's at 9+ cm,feeling some pressure and all is well so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthing Day, Divorce Day

Today is Baby Charlie's real birth-ing Day!!! Hannah is at the hospitla and I am headed up there shortly...first a stop at Subway for Jon!!! Maybe some Gerbera daisies for Hannah who loves them too.....................
This is also a tragically sad day. Caleb home from leave for not even a whole week has had his heart crushed by a wife who no longer wants to be his wife, who has not been living for quite some time, as his wife. His arrival on "her scene" almost dampered her plans; her lies to get him out of her way were quickly discovered, a few words were exchanged, mostly she just wanted him gone. Now he is. She is in her little apartment and Caleb is here. As we rejoice with Hannah and Jon, we are grieivng with Caleb who is filing documents to end his barely two year old marriage. Broken hearted, he has to also look down the road to not being distracted by these issues as he goes back to war. As much as I hate divorce, I hate the thought of my son "missing something critical" by being distracted while on the battle field, and coming home ............under a flag. My prayers are that God will comfort him as he has never been comforted before, that God will direct him up out of this pit, and cause Caleb to draw closer to his Lord than he ever has.....that God will make beauty out of this ugly pile of ashes. My prayers for my daughter in law, who has never made herself a part of this family at all, will not sense hatred or bitterness from us. She has taken me off her Face book list of friends, but I wrote her a message anyhow. I will probably also send it to her email address because I want her to read my words to her. I want her to know that as disappointed as I am in this situation, I love her, have always loved her and want God's best for her, and I hope that she will choose God's best for her in days and weeks to come.
When people used to see me with young Joshua beside me and pushing two shopping carts in the Commissary back in our active duty military days: my carts filled with 4 small children and a lot of groceries, I would often hear,"Oh I don't know how you DO it!!" THOSE, dear readers were the EASY DAYS!!!!!!!!!!! God has grown my faith and my relationship with Himself over the young chld years to the teen and adult child years (OK and back for round 2 with the young child years: we must have done "ok" for God to give us another batch of blessings to raise!!) to where I can stand in this storm and KNOW that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness to quote one old hymn and IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL to quote another. How I pray that my faith , shared and taught has been caught and has and will take strong root in each of my children. My header verse is so precious to me, especially today: "All your children shall be taught of the Lord and GREAT will be the peace of you children!!" Isaiah 45:13
Hannah just called. Her water has broken on its own, its clear, she's 3 and thin (you ladies know what all that is!! ) and I am off to the hospital to become a Gramma!!!!!!!!!

9-11

As I think back to September 11, 2001 there is so much on my mind. We were nose deep in our first adoption, waiting for our referrals from Cambodia for a post toddler aged boy and a little girl. I'd planned a trip to visit my mom in Georgia thinking that within a few months (as the process was going then in September 2001) we'd have our children home before February and my days of solo travel would be over for a while. The "big Cambodian adoption e-group" was abuzz with referrals, children coming home, whose agency was better than who elses' and a lot of other blah blah blah I have come to know is part of international adoption . Then the attacks. ALL OF A SUDDEN, our group was all about our members who were in New York, fire fighters, police, workers, family and friends not heard from, and we were in deep prayer and support mode for weeks. We mourned lost loved ones of people we'd never met, we rejoiced over people found, people safe, fire fighters home safe after days of non-stop haavy labor. But, back to that morning. We were starting our school day, having swept the kitchen floor and put up the dishes. Charlie called me, not real unusual if he'd forgotten something or needed me to run an errand for him, or to tell me something he'd heard on talk radio on his way in to work. When he told me a plane had flown into one of the twin towers, I honestly thought he was about to tell me a joke...so safe I felt, so unaware that the incredible evil perpetuated upon my country was not just about to happen, but WAS happening at that very moment. I actually asked him,"Ok what's the punch line?" only to hear him say....oh -so-seriously, and with an urgency in his voice, "NO, someone flew a plane into the Tower. Turn on the tv." AS I turned on Fox News, I saw the second plane fly into the other tower and I froze. As the story continued to unfold: a plane flying into our Pentagon, a plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania that we'd discover later was bound for the White House, its hijackers overpowered and the plane crashed in a field by those fighting for control of that plane............ and I tried to explain this horror to my children, we prayed a lot more than usual. We have always had daily Bible reading and prayer time together. Today our prayers were of a very different kind. America was under attack. OUR COUNTRY. Not some other place far away, not some place where we sent out soldiers to fight, or keep peace, not a country torn by war who had far too man yorpahns in need of sponsors or adoption, but OUR COUNTRY. I watched as our President was told of the attacks while he was reading to school children. He stayed so calm, managed to finish what he was doing, and made a way to excuse himself. He took such criticism for that, not jumping up and shouting "ATTACK ATTACK" I guess, but I was so proud of him. He didn't scare those kids, didn't give them more information than they could handle without parents to guide them through it, didn't panic or show panic. Later that day as President Bush stood on a pile of the rubble, bull horn in hand addressing those around him, someone shouted , "We can't hear you!" and he shouted back clearly and loudly,
" BUT I CAN HEAR YOU AND THE REST OF THE WORLD HEARS YOU!" and some semblance of national order began in a tiny way, to be restored. More and more detail came out, film footage came out, much of it not what I wanted our children to see, and much of which I didn't want to look at myself, but I knew we were in the middle of one of the most important events of American history and certainly of my own life, so I watched. And cried, and looked away, looked back, and cried, and prayed for all the families directly affected and for our whole world, which was certainly affected as well. If America was not imepervious to this kind of attack, WHAT WAS SAFE?
As I shared memories with Naomi today and we talked about that day, and what she was seeing on tv today, she listened, and replied, "Is my daddy coming home tonight? Do you think we can go ride horses together?" In the face of all the horror and evil, sweet Naomi is still innocent and in the face of ugliness, its her daddy and their favorite activity she wants to seek out for security. I want her to know that there is evil, and sin, but for a small child, I want her knowledge and confidence in God and this family HE has built us into to be around her and to be what is foremost in her mind, not fear or ugly scenes on a tv.If God had not led us to adopt her from that very poor northern province in Vietnam, her life might well be filled with ugliness and fear and uncertainty. For His Plan, He spared her that kind of life. There is time to teach her more about why her daddy and brothers went to war and how it relates to the ugly pictures on the tv. Today she knows she is safe. Our country is still the greatest on earth, our soldiers the best, our God still and always God of the Universe.
I am not finished thinking or writing, but right now, Naomi's question about going riding stands as the reminder to me that God IS God and we as family are showing God's love and security to our children.

from a mamma's heart

I forgot the camera so I can't show you what it looked like when Caleb and Courtney got to our house yesterday, or what it looked like at our Mexico Joe's dinner out as the Smiths just kept arriving and arriving at the restaurant to share time with Caleb, but I can try to paint a word picture. We are pretty affectionate in this family and hugs come easily. Caleb and Malachi: that's a special sight. They are really peers now, at 25 and 21, more than little brother-big brother, and while Caleb is shorter, blonde and work-out/Army built and Malachi is very tall, slender, wiry built and has his dad's darker characteristics, the facial similarities which didn't used to be so easily recognized are there now in their "grown up man faces"...variations on a theme, but similarities not seen in earlier years. It was a precious moment for this mamma! The deep felt, prolonged hugs between Caleb and his younger sibs yesterday was so special. Isaiah does not know Caleb as well as the others because of when Caleb moved out on his own and when Isaiah came home, but the love and the bonds are not weakened by that kind of "little stuff". Lots of hugs, lots of stories, lots of "let me show you......." from Naomi and Rachel, a bit more shyness from Leah, reserved excitement from Isaac and Noah.
Right before we started to leave for dinner, the power went off throughout the house, and fencing. . After Caleb checked all the circuits to make sure it was not just our house popping a breaker, we figured that a bolt of lightening somewhere had apparently stuck something critical to our having electricity. Of course at that same time, my littlest doe goat was persistently escaping from the pasture,(combination of no electricity to the hot fence and a goat who does not like her new surroundings) Caleb helped me rig some new fence, to which Rose responded by finding a NEW escape route. Caleb then helped me move little Miss Rose to another hard fenced small area. Success that time. WELCOME HOME SON!!!
Caleb picked Jael up at the high school on their way to Joe's, and he said she jumped on him so hard she nearly knocked the two of them down. THAT had to be quite the running -jumping- hug because while Caleb is not as tall as his other brothers, he is built and buffed rock solid!! Jael is very slender, but she is "Gymnast Strong" which is almost "Army Strong" and he loved it!
Basketball, youth group, work schedules and all being what they are we started piling into the restaurant at a bit before 6 PM and kept piling in and out until almost 9 PM! It was an attention grabber for the customers all around to see their favorite shift leader, Esther, stop what she was doing, which was carrying a tray of drinks, to grab a handsome blond man as he headed for his table and give him a huge hug. She proceeded to tell customers all night long that her big brother was home from Iraq. As Gideon came in, more big tight affectionate hugs, this time with fists pounding each others' backs, Jon reacquainting with his comrade in arms brother-in-law, Caleb marveling over his first glimpse of little sister Hannah's 'great with child" belly, and then the father -son reunion when Charlie came in and joined the group. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gideon was being Gideon, and Esther has a way of soothing that savage beast like no other. We all delighted in watching her rub the top of Gideon's head and tell him "it's all right...you're OK..." when he got a bit testy over some comments made. Esther had to have her laughs at Caleb's expense of course and announced to the restaurant that it was her brother's 26th birthday soon ( Oct 9) and that since he will be back in Iraq for the day, she wanted to celebrate it tonight. She plunked the big trade mark sombrero on his head and led the staff as they sang their HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caleb. So as Smith sibs came and went for their various other events, it was entirely wonderful to sit and just chat together with Caleb and Courtney, Hannah and Jon, Gideon, Malachi, with the younger kids popping in with stories and comments too, Jael with her random off -the-wall fun stuff, and Esther every chance she got for a sit-moment, and Charlie too! His work schedule was so heavy he was not going to come home last night, but Caleb talked him into working a full double day today so he could join the first reunion.
Caleb and Courtney headed back to OKC to their apartment ,and won't be here today..we are planning a zoo trip with them for sometime this week or next, but Saturday, thanks to Gideon and some football player friends, Charlie and I are going to the OSU - Houston football game together with Caleb and Courtney! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE (the 13th actually) and WELCOME HOME CALEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told Hannah that she "may" have the baby any day EXCEPT Saturday! We'll see how that plays out!

Caleb!!!!!!!

What a wonderful treat to hear my phone ring this morning and see my son Caleb's face and phone number light up the screen!! He was calling from Dallas, awaiting the departure of the last plane for home to OKC. How super to be able to talk for over an hour with no interruptions, no cut offs, no echoes, or static. Only clear talk!
Just now he called from OKC. Courtney had picked him up, and he is reacquainting with his bride, and Oklahoma. I am full of praises that he is here safe and sound! Having sent him over for this second tour, his brother Gideon for a tour, his brother Joshua for a lot of tours, and my husband for two tours, I take every minute as a gift, and none of those minutes or tours for granted. Life is so precious and I do not know why our family has been spared the inevitability of tragedy that comes with war, but we have. Each day when I thank God for my soldiers' safety, I pray for those families whose life plan included that unthinkable vist from the dress uniformed high level officers, the trip to the airport to welcome home a flag- draped casket, the funeral plans, and all that goes with the earthly loss of abeloved soldier. My mind flashes back to the blessed few funerals of friends we have needed to attend, andI am often over come by the unmerited grace and mercy which has spared us. Sometimes I wonder why "them".................but I know that God is directing our steps each and every day. So far our steps have not been on "that path" but I have also had to pray for preparation in case that day did come.
Caleb has 4 more months in Iraq when he goes back. Joshua has about 5 more weeks.
The yellow ribbons on my house and on my vehicles are a bit more obvious than my prayers, but both are part of my life. Today is a day of incredible thanksgiving for our family. It is also a day to pray for ongoing comfort for friends who have taken down their yellow ribbons. Please rejoice with me that our son has come home to reunite with his wife, relax, celebrate the soon-to-come birth of his nephew, and enjoy life! Please , will you pray for those families who did not get this celebration as a part of their loved ones' hoem comings?

Daniel

I have heard from several people who KNOW and Daniel was ill, but PRAISE GOD, he is better now and it was not related to his hydrocephaly condition, or related disorders!! Thank you so much to my dear sisters who were awakened last Sunday to pray for Daniel..................YOU were used of God to minister to our sweet son, and God was faithful in your obedience to His urgings! I still have no clue when he may be approved to come home, but am very glad to report that he is not sick beyond his "other diagnosis" which is quite enough thank you!PRAISE BE TO GOD that he has loving care takers and volunteers and that I have gotten some information. I can deal with bad news a whole lot better than I can with NO news. Aswe continue to pray for Daniel, please do pray for the staff at his orphanage because another special needs little 4 year old boy did die there last week from an infection. They are needless to say VERY saddened. He was cheerful dispite his deformities and he is being missed deeply!

I awoke to an award....thanks Shana!

I received this award from Shana (www.blazencrochet.blogspot.com ) at Blaze n' Crochet:
"The Humane Award honors eight certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world. Link back to the person who gifted you with the award and share the love with other bloggers."

ALL of you who visit my blog and who leave your sweet comments are so special to me!
I have a number of official followers, a number of regular readers who are "not official" and a lot of lurkers who show up in the counter. ALL of you challenge me to want to write from my heart in ways that share the love of God and what He brings to my life with his new-every-morning- mercies. PLEASE take this award for yourselves, each of you and know that even if you do not comment (ever or) often, I'm glad you come visit with me

prayers for Daniel

We are praying even more fervently for Baby Daniel tonight. I learned "through the grapevine" that Daniel was in the hospital this weekend, but I don't know why. In Liberia, no one goes to the hospital lightly, and for an orphan baby to be hospitalized, it had to be something serious. I have not heard from our agency in quite a while, this information did not come from them. It is my hope that we will hear something tomorrow. I NEED to hear something tomorrow! Thank you all who have continued to pray with us for Daniel! Our deepest hope and prayer have been that I will be traveling on about September 22 to bring our baby home. Right now my prayer is that Daniel is healthier than he was last week, getting stronger again and that he is not starting to fade........................My hope is in the Lord, I am not wigged out with worry. I AM very concerned for our baby. I am thankful that his caregivers do care for him very much, thankful that God knew all of this story before He ever revealed any of this chapter of our lives to us, and that HE holds the next pages and chapters too! Please Lord let our homecoming day for Daniel be soon!

Hosanna..my newest YES LORD song!!!

You'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom of my page and mute my playlist before you turn this on, but please do. I promise you will be blessed!

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A quote which is challenging me today, will it challenge you?

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." From John Piper.

I pulled it from a Proverbs 31 Devotional which I read every day. Today's devotional is by Amy Carroll an the paragraph preceeding Pipe's quote sasy this:


"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word." Psalm 119: 16 (NIV)

In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, this life defining question is asked, "What is the chief end of man?" The answer is simple yet profound. It says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." One way we can bring Him great glory is by using our gifts and fulfilling our calling – by serving. It's too easy to fall short, though, by forgetting the second part of our chief duty. We are called not only to work for Him, but to enjoy Him.

Awaiting Baby Hannah, who is now awaiting her own baby

This week's McLinky blog hop is to share our favorite baby photos. Here are jsut two of mine!!

I love this photo of Caleb listening to Hannah's heartbeat with my old Dutch horn fetoscope. Caleb was 4 ,and Hannah was a day from being born. This was early labor!


Here's Hannah, 22 and awaiting her own baby, being checked out by Little sister Leah.


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