seasons, blessings, baby, family, love...

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December 2, 2012
The day she was born.

December10, 2012

December 22, 2012
And then she just grew, so so fast.

January 2, 2013

January 12, 2012
Little Elsie truly is happier than she looks. She adores, ADORES ADORES ADORES, her middle sister. You should have heard the giggles Chessa was getting out of her today! 

January 31, 2013
There was once a little girl named Elsa Willow, and she liked to play in the meadow, and she had so many little ladybug friends... So we tell her...

 February 15, 2013
And the little Elsa kept on growing...

 February 18, 2013
And I will tell you an interesting thing about this little baby... She goes to sleep in other peoples arms. Namely big sister Chloe's arms. (She doesn't really know any other people besides sisters, mommy, and daddy.) I have never known a baby to do this. For example, big sister Chloe, when she was a baby, never went to sleep anywhere other than in my arms. So this is new to me, and quite convenient I must say. This photo here (makes me laugh every time I see it!) shows you what it looks like when Elsa falls asleep in Chloe's arms, and Chloe then lays her down, but she is still holding on.

February 22, 2013
She's a really happy baby!

March 4, 2013
Such sweetness, such a blessing. How very grateful we are that she came to be with us.



When we imagined what this child might look like, we said maybe dark eyes like Chloe, skin more pale like Chessa, somewhere just between them. I felt those dark eyes, and that fair face. Of course we also imagined that the baby was going to be a boy. This was the first time either Jason or I had feelings of having a boy, both other times we just felt sure of girlness. I guess this time we should have know too, cause three girls, yes it just seems so right. But we just went with boy, there was even a probable name chosen. We said if it was girl we would be surprised, and that we would laugh. When she was born we actually didn't even look to see if she was a boy or girl for about 10 minutes or so. And then we really did laugh. And goodness we were happy. And then it took us almost two weeks to name her.


Thank you so much for all kind sharing of comments, well wishes, love, and for the welcome back to this space.


It is one year ago now that I became pregnant. We knew, we felt, for so long that this child was coming to us. We also knew that the first months could be difficult, since I had been so sick before with both girls for the first trimester. We sure did not expect though that I would be so so sick for so so long. Through almost every moment of every day for almost the entire pregnancy I was not well (and that is an understatement, cause really I was puking 3 to 5 times a day...)

There was concern for my health, concern over whether or not it would be safe to have a home birth. Every day we put great effort into making me stronger. And all the prayers and well wishes from dear friends surely must have helped a lot. We always kept faith that baby was healthy and strong. Midwife said not to worry cause babies are so good at taking just what they need from mother.

My midwife also suggested that when people commented on my belly saying, "oh, you're so little", that I tell them to go suck an egg. That is perhaps the only piece of advice I did not take her up on, though I'm not saying it wasn't kinda good advice. My belly was measuring up just right the whole time anyway.

At the end, instead of being born in the second half of November as we had expected, or perhaps a little earlier since both girls before arrived early, this little one waited all the way until December to be born. Which gave mommy more time to get iron up to safe levels for home birth, and baby time to do some extra growing. Such a good thing to have time for the extra growing, cause just 5 pounds 6 ounces, I would not have wanted her to be any smaller. (Chessa was actually a bit smaller though. We just have small babies. I had kinda had high hopes for growing this one bigger, but then there was all the puking...)

And, 5 pounds 6 ounces, perfectly healthy wonderful little baby. Perfectly healthy safe happy home birth.

And why am I bring all this up again? Because like I said, it was one year ago that I became pregnant. I was sick all spring, looking forward to the summer, which when it came I was feeling not better at all. I missed so many seasons! And now they are here again. And I feel well again. So so well. What an incredible blessing to have good health! And to have this wonderful family of mine with these three sweet girls to journey through this beautiful year with.

The feeling of promise that this coming season offers is so inspiring to me. My family has so many dreams, each day we will bring ourselves closer to those dreams, we will embrace the work and joy of it all.

I wish to you as well a beautiful good-bye to the winter (your summer?) and a blessed journey into the new season!


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