To Aunt Laura, Lillian, Abigail, and Rebecca

Thanks for the presents. . . . . . .can't you see how excited I am?

(believe it or not, I'm not crying here--just one of those silly baby faces)

One week old

I guess Philip will be our first "web" baby. He is already taking on is own little traits. Even so, he still gets called "the baby." I guess he'll have to grow into a Philip!

Our camera doesn't have sound, so watching our little videos will be like watching home movies from decades ago!

Jacob is 6!

Yesterday we had a little party for Jacob's birthday. Just the six (yes, six) of us and Nannie, who leaves this morning to go back home to Virginia. He told me the day before his birthday that he didn't think he was going to look like he was 6 on his birthday.

6 candles

Methodical as usual, he blew them out one at a time.

Fun stuff.

Uncle Daniel comes through again. A little brown box was in our mailbox yesterday (his actual birthday), and I knew who it was from!

A growing quiver

Jacob's 6th birthday is in 6 days and he has been praying that our new baby would be a brother ("so I can play 'bad guy' with him"). Today he got his birthday present a little early. This was by far the best delivery Sharon has had and she feels remarkably well. We only spent 1 1/2 hours in the hospital before delivery, since we had chosen to spend most of the labor time at home in more natural surroundings.

Philip Christian was born at 3:54 pm on his due date, Friday, February 20, 2009, at York Hospital. He is named after my maternal grandfather, Philip Johnson, and my paternal great-grandfather Henry Christian Birx. He weighs 7 lbs, 6.6 ounces and is 19 1/2 inches long. Sharon thinks he looks most like Lydia did. He has taken readily to nursing and gives every indication of a healthy baby. We ask ourselves why God should choose to bless us with yet another healthy child. Life is never certain, but it is certain that we could know so many more trials than we do.

Our baby girl holding our baby boy.

Nannie and the baby. (Sharon's mom came up on Wednesday to

hold down the fort while we were gone.)

Mama and the baby.


Brothers!

Life is so boring--I think I'll go back to sleep.

Such a tiny bundle.

Just hangin' around.

Can't I have chocolate milk instead?

I need somebody to keep me safe--this all looks new to me.


Big sister three times over.

Someday we will meet again. . .

I came across this picture of my Grandpa (Philip) Johnson and me from long ago. Even the joys of birth in this fallen world cannot come without twinges of sadness as we think back to those no longer here to share the joy with us. Even from Sharon's maternity room we look out from the upper floor down onto the York Nursing Home far below. I cannot help but think of the contrast between those who visit maternity wards and those who visit the nursing home. I don't mean to be melancholy, but I think of the day when the tears will be over and families will be together again. How we pray that all those in our earthly family will be found there on the other side.

Right on time

Due to the slowness of my connection, and the amount of pictures I'd like to post, I'm going to put up one of baby Philip Christian Birx so any early birds can see him while I take time writing another post with more pictures. So stay tuned.

Baby preparations and such

This week has been one of getting things in place for our expected baby (due in 13 days). As of last night I think we have all the major things in place. Here are a few pictures of our week:

The kids have been helping out a lot (with not too much parental "encouragement"). Lydia is doing most of the laundry, taking it to the basement, loading & starting the washer, then loading the dryer (Sarah Beth helps her fold). Jacob is usually on kitchen floor detail, but this night he had the help of his sisters!

Sharon went for her last once-a-month grocery shopping on Wednesday (I didn't work because of snow). While she was gone for many hours, the kids did many things to stay busy, including dressing up in church clothes for a piano concert. Jacob did a pretty good job for somebody without lessons!

Our latest blessing comes in the form of a van! Finally, after 2 years of squeezing us into the Corolla (yes, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to gas, as much driving as we do), as of last night we finally have a van. Sharon and I were thinking that Sarah Beth was our most expensive baby because we had to buy a house when she came. This baby only requires the purchase of a van! Some dear friends generously gave us some money to put towards the purchase, and after a week of online searching God led us to this Sienna. It was a little older than we were looking for (2002), but only has 38,000 highway miles and was well priced. When we got the Corolla, we prayed for God's leading and we found a real deal, but it was 70 miles away. This time I prayed God would do the same thing but keep it to within 30 miles. This van was less than 15 miles away! We are all glad to have it, but Sharon most especially. It even has a hitch installed, which I was planning to put on whatever van we got. The seller also gave us a bike rack that mounts in the hitch.

I finish this post out with another beautiful picture from this season. We saw the sun setting outside the living room window. A few days before we had some snow and then a thick coating of ice on top. The scenery at night was spectacular--as you drove down the road, the lights from people's houses reflected off the ice and made it look as if everyone had a skating rink in their front yard.

Hidden stories in the Book of Ruth

Last night we were reading the first chapter of Ruth for family worship. We talked about how sad it was for Naomi to lose her sons and husband. But as we neared the end of the chapter, I started to think about how special that story is. We all know about how God is in control of everything that happens--he is sovereign. We hear things like, "in the providence of God" such-and-such happened. Yet we must remember that even in the sad or hard times, God is still in control--maybe I shouldn't say "even in the sad times." I think that it is during those hard times that God is most clearly showing himself as God. Any human could write a nice story with good things that happen--but God designs sad things or even tragedies to write beautiful stories. Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, that God works all things according to the counsel of his own will. That means even the hard things, or what are sometimes called "dark providences," are not accidents but are intentional acts or allowances of God that he purposes for greater and better things.

These ideas are clear in the first chapter of Ruth. There was a famine in the land (bad). Naomi's family left the land of promise as a result (bad). Her husband died (bad). Her sons married non-Jewish women (bad). Her sons died (bad). But here is where the exciting unfolding of God's greater plan starts to appear. Naomi and Ruth did not live to see the final results of this suffering (and today not even we know everything good that came from these things), but notice what we do see.

Because of these trials, Ruth meets a godly Jewish woman. Because of God's grace in her life, Naomi is a woman whom Ruth desires to be with--even if it means leaving her homeland and possibly giving up opportunity for remarriage. If Ruth's husband had not died, she would not have returned with Naomi to Israel. If her husband had not died and she had not gone with Naomi back to Israel, she would not have met Boaz. Had she not met Boaz, she would not have become the great-grandmother of David and been in the line of Jesus.

Just some thoughts, but how much we need to think on these things every day of our lives. Have faith in the greater story that God is writing even in the midst of troubles--be they recessions, depressions, famines, or sickness.