our precious daughter

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  

According to his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope, 

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...  

I Peter 1:3

Matthew, Jillian, Isaiah, Marian & John

Joyfully announce the birth of our new baby GIRL!

Vivian Hope 

meaning ~ Living Hope

Her Local Name:

希晨

Xi Chen

meaning ~ Hope Dawns

4:15 am ~  7 lbs, 1 oz

Her Name... Our Prayer and Banner

The Bright Morning Star, 

Hope of our lives,

is Christ the Lord and He will rise

the sun

dawn a day ahead 

when he will come and wake the dead*

and broken things will finally mend,

injustices put to an end.

Our Living Hope is Christ the Lord!

May He be forever adored

in you, for all your days,

and in us too as we all raise

our eyes to Him 

each morning, night

and pray to live this glorious fight

with zeal, faithfully for his name

and in his grace and for his praise.  

Sweet daughter, love 

we raise over you

a banner of grace, life, love and truth

"To trust the world or self is dark

Christ is the hope light of my heart.

Rescued from death of sin, All Grace!

My life in Him is Praise and Thanks!"

*We think first of Vivian's nearest older, nearest girl cousin, Maelee Linn, Greg and Heather's daughter, whose feet never touched this dirty earth but are wild running  and dancing now around the throne of God.  We so look forward with great hope to these girls playing together, worshipping and marveling at their King and Lord of Grace together on that day...

The story of her arrival:

Thursday night I felt like my body was ripe and ready to have baby (baby was low and I knew I was already dilated well) so we called our friends across town to see if we could get the inflatable pool back from them.  (My good friend here Amy had a whole day of false labor just before this and the pool was left at her house, expecting that she would need it first.)  When I knew the pool was coming back to us, I took off for a good walk and I was praying as I went that this would be the night....  Sadly, our internet wasn't working so we couldn't communicate this precious prayer request....

I woke up at 12:10 and started timing contractions, but as has always been the case for me, my contractions were not regular and not all that long.  But this time, they were painful- and that means something!  I woke Matt up at 1:30 and asked him to fill the pool with air-  I still wasn't sure if we should fill it up with the limited drinking water we had bought.  (Tap water here is quite polluted, not drinkable.)  At 1:40 I woke up our sweet midwife to see what she thought...  I really wasn't sure at all that this was labor, but I did know I was in pain.   I paced the living room for a while and we decided to finally call my dear friend Alycia to come help/ be here for the big kids (Isaiah and Marian had both woken up because of the lights and sounds) and my friend An Mei, who was going to take pictures and be transport for us to a hospital, if needed.   

They were both her by 3:00am I think, which was just after I got in the pool to see if it would add some comfort to contractions.... and it did, though they were still pretty near mind-blowing (worse than the others?  It seems like that to me as I think of it now.)

Matt prayed for me at one point, specifically for fear, as I was really battling it- fearing that the contractions would continue to increase, worsen and I would just not be able to take it.  After prayer, I really did feel the fear lifted, my battle was more clear-shot, and now it was not long.  Kara coached me so well and decided to break the sac of waters around 4:10.  Just a few more pushes and Vivi's head was delivered.  Matt and Kara were both delighted to see Vivi open her eyes and look around while she was still underwater.  (In a waterbirth, baby doesn't switch from the amniotic-water-swimming system to the oxygen-breathing-system until the head touches air.)  After a minute to turn her shoulders, Vivi was born and came straight to my chest.... to wait to meet her whole family together.    (That video is in the post below.)

We DELIGHT in this gift of God for our family!