Sorry for the title… still reeling from Hobson’s article.

Ruth Michelle Lumpkin entered the world on Thursday, October 29th at approximately 4:45am after 36.5 weeks in the God-designed safety bubble called the womb (Psalm 139).  She was 7lbs / 20.5 inches.  As far as we can tell, she looks like all the other girls did…just beautiful.

Our due date was November 20th, with a scheduled C-section of November 12th.  God desired to start the number of her days a bit earlier.  We arrived at the hospital around 1:45am or so.  After some initial examination, everything was “go” for a C-section.  Jan and I read Psalm 29, 89 and 139 together.  We prayed and then they wheeled her out.

I then put on this get up…

 

 

 

 

Not 15 minutes later, I was asked to go back with Jan (same routine we’d done before…this was just quicker).  Now, we didn’t find out the sex of the baby, so we had the added excitement of “finding out.”  The doctors and nurses were great to let me “identify” the little human.

After what seems like a few Greco-Roman wrestling moves by doctors performed on my wife’s abdomen, they say, “Dad, you want to know what you have?”  I stood up, looked for a good while (doctors know to keep that umbilical cord out of the way — daddy’s eyes get fuzzy in that setting), and told Jan, “We have a Ruth.”

After an initial wipedown, but before her bath, this is what I saw…

 

 

 

 

 

We had some good time together from here.  I just stood and stared at her in the nursery, while waiting for Jan to come out of recovery (how anxious wives who have C-sections must be to wait).  After we were in a room for a short time, Ruth was brought in to nurse.  She did great!

Well, to just continue the “life” with a larger (than norm) family, I had 3 doctor appointments to get the other 3 girls to by 9am.  Poor Lydia had to have 4 immunization shots.  She handled them like a trooper!

We got back to the hospital and had the family all together…

 

 

 

All was well.  At least until Lydia came down with a stomach virus and a high fever…

 

 

 

 

After the day ended, I was left at home to care for Lydia and leave Jan and Ruth with the very capable and kind hands of those at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital.

It was a huge, long (often surreal) day of sleeplessness, joy, reality, illness, fatigue… I’ll choose the “joy” part.  A day when you’d love to focus on the new baby demanded teamwork by a husband and wife, most often not together, to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the family overall.  All the while, we texted and called to stay connected just between us.

Joy is not always pretty, but it is always beautiful!

11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:11-14