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!

The Lord is Gracious

Matt and Jill joyfully, gratefully announce the birth of their second son

John Timothy K.

The son whom we love who is faithful in the Lord

(I Corinthians 4:17)

His Local name:

马正辉

Pronounced Zheng-4 Hway-1: the name means "upright, marvelous light" and It sounds like "witness of the light"

The legacy of his name:

The disciple John considered himself the beloved friend of Jesus and it's our prayer that this would also be the core of how our son grows to understand hismself as well. John means "God is gracious", and clearly, He is abundantly so! We are glad that this name also links our son to a history of many great men after God's heart , several treasured friends, and to Matthew's next youngest brother, John Christian, who went to be with the Lord while he was a toddler.

Timothy was chosen because of the banner Paul wrote of another young man by this name in I Corinthians 4:17. He commended this Timothy to the church as "the son whom I love who is faithful in the Lord." This is another message we want raised high over our son's heart, mind, and life. We are also glad that this name has been carried by three men in our own lives who have impacted us greatly: T. Kuck- a spiritual father to Jill through young adult years, T. Luepke- a dear friend, a brother of the heart, and ministry partner to Matt, and T. Mitch- a dear friend and mentor to both of us whose life and family overseas has been an example to us.

The story of his coming:

Labor was pretty strange leading up to the moment of meeting our boy. There were 3 weeks of significant contractions- off and on- ahead of time, and then a break with no contractions for 5 hours after we arrived at the hospital. After this wait, Jill was moved to the delivery room around 3 am and then soon dilated to 10 cm but contractions were still considered (not by Jill) to be too slight and there was no urge to push. Matt was an outstanding labor coach and remebered well how we had learned and heard the value of breathing through contractions and letting the body work naturally.... so we did that for 2 hours and then decided to have the sac of waters broken to see if that would help get the baby out. It was ruptured at 5:12 and John was born at 5:17am. Praise the Lord! We are so glad to have our new son with us!

Big brother Isaiah and big sister Marian join us in gladly welcoming our little one!

Our sweet princess wasn't feeling too well when she came to the hospital to meet her little bro... and then the big brother came down with the same junk she had so John and I have ended up staying our full 3 days in the hospital to hopefully see the fevers end at our house before we return.

One very important part of the morning for Isaiah, was making sure that John got to see his big brother's Automan (Ultraman) stickers and he got one or two stuck on him as well... Isaiah is obssessed with them and still willing to share.... we love these THREE so much!

March 2006

The Lord Saves

With great joy, Matt & Jill announce the birth of their son

Isaiah Dale

7 lbs. 12 oz.    9am

Isaiah means “the Lord saves” and this is the good news we long for our lives and his life to proclaim. Dale is his grandfather’s first name and father’s middle name. We pray that the bond between these three men will be close and will sharpen our son to love and serve the Lord.


The story of his coming…
Dale and Mary K. arrived at 7 pm Wednesday and joked as they took pictures of “the night before Baby arrived.” Then at 3 am Thursday, I awoke with contractions but wasn’t really sure this was going to be the real thing. Still, we took off for the birthing center and Isaiah was born less than 2 hours later. Matt was the one to make the announcement in the birth room: “The Lord has given us a beautiful baby boy!” Then we waited to announce his name, till Grandma and Grandpa could join us in the room.

Ideally, we would have been going home just 4 -6 hours after the birth, but Isaiah was breathing faster than normal so as a precaution, we had to be transferred to a nearby hospital. We received great care there and by God’s grace Isaiah recovered by the next morning without needing any medication. We ended up having to spend a total of 2 ½ days there.

This made for a difficult start with feeding, but our bonding with him had definitely begun. We had already noticed his funny faces and sweet temperament. We arrived home Sunday afternoon, trying to recover and adjust to our new lives as a family of three! We are so outrageously blessed with this little man, and are so grateful to God for choosing him to be our son. He is a delight to us in every way!

We are so glad to have such tremendous friends and family around us to receive our son with such joy! You are a great blessing to us and we really look forward to introducing our son to you!

August 2007

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”

Just as Mary, the mother of Jesus, sang this song, 

we pray that this will also be our daughter’s heart and song.

Matt and Jill joyfully announce the birth of their sweet daughter

Marian Lynn

 Weight: 3.4 kg (approx 7 ½ pounds)

Height: 51 cm (20 inches)

Her local name is pronounced May Lynn ~ meaning “Beautiful Jewel”

The story of her arrival:
We had been praying for the timing to be just right… and it surely could not have been better! Saturday night we left for the hospital and a dear friend of ours here came and stayed with Isaiah. We quickly found a taxi and traffic was no problem at all. We met our American midwife at the hospital around 11:30 and after 3 hours of labor (which was much more painful than Isaiah's) our baby girl joined us… healthy and without intervention or complication!  An especially wonderful part of her birthday is that she was born on her Grandma Lynn's birthday. We are so struck by the grace of God, and we are grateful.


The legacy of her name:
In her name, our daughter is linked with several great women. We are glad for the examples of women named Mary in the New Testament whose lives were submitted to God and deeply committed to worshipping Him. Our daughter’s name also connects her with her Great-grandmother Marian and with her Grandmother Mary. For her middle name, she has the name of her Grandma Lynn B., who she’s already been loved by in heaven. We pray that her life will be passionately committed to the Lord and full of grace, virtue, valor, beauty and strength, just as each of these women have displayed in their lives.

We miss being near you all to celebrate our precious baby girl, but we are so grateful for your long-distance cheer with us!  Thank you friends!