Exhaustion

This is Emma's "I'm almost ready to eat but not quite yet" face. Pretty cute, huh? We are loving this adventure of parenthood and can't believe Emma is already a week old. We had her first doctor's appointment today. It was strange to drive to the hospital and remember the early morning she was born. It was the most difficult, beautiful thing I've ever done. And I'd do it all over again for her. It's amazing the newfound respect I have for women in their ability to sustain life and bring it into the world. God is pretty amazing in His design.
Anyways, Emma's first appointment went well. She has already gained back an ounce more than her birth weight. That explains all the feedings! Overall she is very healthy and in fine form. Wish we could say the same for us! We are bit sleep deprived and calorie deprived- not from lack of food but because we keep forgetting to eat. You other parents out there understand. But we are loving life and are so thankful. My parents come tomorrow to help out and get some good time in with their new grandbaby. We are looking forward to taking more naps, and maybe actually cleaning our house!... with their help, of course.
We're off to bed for the night. Pray for us, that we all (including Emma) sleep well.

She's Here!

Emma Elizabeth Jamieson was born on Wednesday, January 24th at 5:47 a.m. She was 6 lbs, 10 ounces and 19 inches long. We are thrilled to have her home. We wish you all could see her and hold her, as she’s beautiful! Katie’s water broke on Wednesday morning at 12:00 a.m. on the dot. 5 hours and 47 minutes later, she was born!

It is amazing the gift God has given us of this tiny, precious girl. The things we have learned about Him through this process of bringing life into the world are so good. All the “grown up” things we know of Him and sanctification- disciplines, theology, discipleship- have been given a new set of eyes through the power of love and pure joy we have experienced in the gift of our daughter.

Here are some words to a song Brendan wrote before Emma was born:

The Artist Behind

The first word, light
Like truth divides
Bringing form to formless night

Speak color, scorn
Sterile black and white
Imagination given sight

Bright burning stars
Crown the evening sky
Set in splendor to remind

With loving hands
Expertly conceive
From dust and into him breathe

Softly, I can hear the beat sound
I can feel my heart pound
See the breath of life all around

The mystery of creation
Is an invitation
Perceived in limbs and eyes
And in tiny cries
O stand in silent wonder
Do not rend asunder
Creation and the life
Of the artist behind

In a sacred moment
In a secret place
Nothingness now wears a face

Small wonder growing
On hearts to her inclined
Ever moving to remind

Foot like a searchlight
Illuminations of
A Makers intimate love

Sweet expectation
Of sacrificial care
And finding the Artist there

Veiled behind light, hidden beneath skin
Intimations of a Lover’s image in

Veiled behind hearts never used to believe
Revelation plain to see



Hope you all enjoy the pictures of Emma. We’ll be posting more very soon (we’ve already taken over 150 of her!)

The final belly shot at 38 and 1/2 weeks:

And then...

With Daddy after her first bath:

A little Mommy and Emma time:

Coming home from the hospital:

Trying out the sling for our first walk together:

Happy New Year!

This post is dedicated to one of my best friends - Geoff Welch. We've been talking a lot about sharing pregnancy pictures (of our wives!) and so here's a recent picture of Katie at 35 weeks. She's actually 36 weeks preganant right now, but the picture is dated. We're mostly ready for our little baby to come out, but are you ever totally ready? I think not.

Life has been pretty interesting the last couple months. We went home to Virigina for Thanksgiving to see Katie's family, which was wonderful. We enjoyed the time with her parents, brother, sister and grandparents. After coming back from Thanksgiving, it was just a couple weeks until school was out. We finished up the school semester, and then traveled north from Missoula to Whitefish, MT, for Christmas with Brendan's parents and grandfather. We've enjoyed having the extra space and time together with students off for the holidays. We're counting the days until our little girl is born, and we hope she comes out soon! Seriously, it is a strange time, waiting for our lives to be changed by this little life, but the changes don't really start until she's out. We really feel like we're just waiting around before we can get on with this next phase of life. We're trying to get in a few experiences that will likely be hard after she's born, like going to a movie, going out to dinner, etc. That's been fun.

So, below are a few pictures from the last two months.

This is Brendan's 28th (gasp!) birthday celebration at the Adams' home in Virginia.

This is Katie and her sister Rachel at home in Virginia before Rachel took off for Dehli, India.