Josie's Here!

I feel like the biggest slacker in the whole wide world. Josie Hope Kline was born at 8:01 on Tuesday July 14th. She weighed in at 8lbs 4 oz and measuered 19.5 inches.

I must confess the morning of her birth and our scheduled c section as well as the night before was nothing short of chaotic. All of the things I have blogged about handing over to God.... worry fear and doubt crept into mind in the 24 hours before her birth. I did too much on Monday, I was totally worried about Grace and Toby and how they were going to digest the next four days and at the same time I was about to undgergo some big time surgery. Billy was dealing with a time bomb... I big huge prego time bomb ready to explode, I cried all the way to the hospital. Not for any reason other than I had this utter and total sense of surrender and lack of control over anything. This all was going to go down and I had to trust God was working all of it out for good. So I turned on worship music for our drive to the hospital. By the time we arrived I felt better, I felt peace, I felt ready and excited to meet this baby girl. G and T were with the "Grandmas". It's go time.

As they asked me all of the preoperative questions about past births, pregnancies, my history, my other children BK kept tearing up. I was not the only one dealing with the emotional stress of this exciting day ahead of us. BK's favorite part was putting on the scrubs and waiting with me with a video camera, my camera and my phone. Poor guy needed a fanny pack to carry all of the technology with him into the operating room. The surgery was a success, the baby was born beautiful and wonderful. God is so good. When the lifted her up to show me her... my first thought was that she looked like Toby. It took her a bit to cry because she had swallowed some amniotic fluid. That has worked itself out. But she is here and we are all thrilled.


The nurses were phenomenal. The docs were awesome. My recovery may be a little longer than I'd like, but I am praying God just miraculously heal me quickly. I love spending time feeding Josie, loving her, kissing her, staring at her in awe and teaching my kids about her and how babies should be handled loved and cared for.

Grace is thrilled and in love, she's helped me with her baths, her burping, holding her and watching over her completely. Grace hates to hear her cry. She has such a huge heart for this beautiful baby girl. I am loving watching this sisterhood unfold.

Toby was not too thrilled with me being gone and in the hospital. I had betrayed him somehow. He was not wanting to snuggle me, to hug me, or to even look at Josie. Here we are a few days later and he's warming up to her a bit. He'll stop by her and say, "look at her... she's awake... or her nose it so small or she can play with my new ball if she wants to. He held her yesterday and that was a breakthrough for us. He sat with her on his lap and he liked holding her. He said, "thanks for showing me how to hold her Mom. She's cute."

BK has really blown me away with his help in EVERYTHING. I cannot even say enough about how well he is adusting to life with three kids. I know he is making a huge effort to see what I may need help with what all the kids may need and really doing it all as the leader, the awesome Father he is to our children. He even has found time to compliment me on how well I am doing with Josie, he tells me I'm cute when I feel nasty. All of these things I am so appreciative and love him so much for. His effort and help are so much appreciated and make my heart swell with pride and love when I talk about him. I could not do this without him. Whatta man.

I have promised myself we would have Mommy/Toby and Mommy/ Grace days before they both head off to school. Time individually with both of them would be time well spent. In the meantime I am at Josie's beck and call. I am a feeding machine and she is a nursing champion. I affectionately call her "The champ" Because of how vigorously she anticipates breastfeeding. She balls up her fists, makes a scrunchy face with here eyes and looks like she is going to attack it. She makes me laugh. I'm in love.

Well, it's late. I should sleep now when she sleeps, I am fatigued, exhausted, but totally in love and totally in prayer to God for this awesome wonderful cool blessing. Enjoy the pics. Peace to you all my friends and thank you for your prayers.