For those of you who don't know yet, our daughter, Emily Faye, entered the world at 7:44am on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, via scheduled c-section. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces (just 3 ounces lighter than what her big brother was) and 18 inches long. As you can see from the pictures, she also had a full head of dark hair. Contrary to Jacob's birth, which was a harrowing ordeal due to an emergency situation, this was a calm, ordered process, one that we both were able to fully participate in. It was an incredible blessing to be holding my wife's hand as we heard the first tiny cry from our daughter, and both of us were crying when we were able to see her. It was a joyous occasion and our whole stay here has been pleasant, if not relaxing. (Although Jacob is staying at Grandpa and Grandma Voris' house and, with the nurses help, we're actually able to get some pretty good rest in!) Anyway, here are a few pictures (you can also see a small album on my Facebook page, for those of you so inclined). 
I told Becki in the quiet after the initial "meet and greet" that followed all of the excitement of Emily's arrival that I had been nervous over the past few days and on into Wednesday morning, punctuating in a stream of relief as I saw and then held my daughter. We are so blessed already by having Jacob as our son that I honestly didn't think it could get better. In fact, I started going through scenarios in my mind: would she be healthy? What if she were "special needs"? What if something happened to Becki during the surgery? Of course, the answer to the first two (and, really, the last one, as well) is still--and always--that God is in control and I'm blessed anyway, But, as He so often does, God went above and beyond in giving me a perfectly created little girl, a healthy and beautiful wife, as well as an incredible son. I'm not usually at a loss for words, but, to be honest, I have none to explain the gratitude I feel toward my God for giving me all this. I only pray that I am up to the task of taking care of them.
Thank you, Lord!!
First, let me say that my creative juices have been flowing a lot more lately--I have a ton of things in my head that I want to write about and, in fact, I write whole posts up there--but I rarely have time to sit down and actually put pen to paper (or, in this case, finger to keyboard). Maybe I'll find more time for that sort of stuff in a couple of weeks, after Emily is born.
Yes, that was a joke.
Anyway, here is what's going on in the life of our family:
We're starting to settle in to our new home. As I wrote, it's significantly smaller than our previous residence, so there are definite unpacking and organizing challenges. We've resigned ourselves to just unpacking what we think we'll need for the next year and leaving the rest in boxes in the garage until we move into something larger. But the house is, for the most part, unpacked and livable. A lot of you are probably wondering why we made the move down here to (almost) Palm Bay. Simply put, it was hard to ignore a 5-minute commute to work. And, as I said...it's temporary. We fully expect to be in a new home next year at this time (whether that's in this area or not, we don't know).
T-minus 6 days and counting. Becki is scheduled to go in early next Wednesday morning (5/27) for her c-section that will give us our daughter, Emily Faye. It's really hard to believe that the time is here already and, although we're naturally a bit nervous about adding a new little one to our family, we're really excited, too! Everything is going great and we're as ready as we can be, I suppose. I'm sure I'll be sending out updates/pictures to those of you whose email addresses I have, as well as posting on here, so check back next week.
Still church-shopping. This is a whole lot tougher than I remember it being. I think we've come across one that we like, though, so we'll see. It's actually quite a commute (25 miles one-way), but some good friends of ours go there and we've really enjoyed the past couple of weeks. Bonus points for the Pastor remembering our names this past Sunday! I'm pretty desperate to get us plugged into a small group soon--I really miss that--but I don't want to jump head-first without checking things out thoroughly. Still, this place has some real potential and we've already identified some ways that we can contribute--something that is important to me.
Work is going well right now. We're severely understaffed, which can be bad (lots more to be done) or good (lots of overtime). As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I've been cross-promoted in the department to take on more of an admin role, which I'm really enjoying but is keeping me super busy. In fact, I've put in extra hours the past 3 weekends, and will be going in this weekend, too. I do love the fact that I have a job like that now, though. All that being said, I'm still keeping my eyes open for other opportunities. I don't remember who said it, but I love the quote, "The best time to look for a job is when you have a job." Becki and I are continuing to talk about where we believe the Lord may be leading us and, even though a move may be tough with 2 little ones, we're open to His leading.
Well, that's it for now. Obviously there's going to be a lot more going on next week at this time, so expect to hear from me then.
