Welcoming Jude

We've had plenty of people come by to see the newest member of our family. Everyone is so excited to meet him. What's not to be excited about? New babies are so soft and cuddly and little. Before Jude was born, I thought Joel was so little. I'd forgotten how small new babies are.

My friend Karen came Thursday bearing two casseroles and two batches of cookies. The kids couldn't agree as to whether they wanted chocolate chip or peanut butter, so Karen brought both. She snuggled Jude and made sure every other kid had some individual attention, too.

My friend Tammy took five of our kids for the day on Friday. Her five kids are about the same ages, so even though ten kids made for a very busy day, a great time was had by all (at least all of the kids, that is). She even made dinner for us and dropped it off when she brought the kids back. What a woman!

Matt and I spent Friday morning at doctor's appointments with Jude. He is a bit jaundiced, so we'll be monitoring his biliruben levels throughout the weekend. The poor baby has had his foot poked so many times, between blood glucose level checks, PKU testing and now the biliruben checks. I think I'd be having a nervous breakdown if he were my first baby.

My parents were able to come down to see the baby last night. We had a nice, quiet (as quiet as it gets with six kids) evening. We were even able to have an abbreviated family worship time. We sang "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," even though Paul wished we had sung "Oh, Suzanna." Grandma Jane was able to talk with each of the older kids about the difficulties of this transition time. So far, we've all had our turn with tears (except Matt), but he's probably next. Seriously, he's the only one who has his head on half way straight around here right now. He's the anchor of our family.

Our friends Floyd and Peggy came by this morning to meet Jude. They also brought us a meal and Peggy "settled her debt" to me. When I was still pregnant, we had Floyd and Peggy here for dinner one night. She brought ice cream for dessert. Unknowingly, she brought my all time favorite kind--rocky road. Since I wasn't able to partake of it's chocolaty goodness at the time, she brought me my own stash today. She even had Grace mark it with a permanent marker so that no other member of the family could have it. Mommies always share, though, so no one will be left out.

Daddy has the kids on a walk right now. They needed to burn a little energy (and probably frustration) off. We'll eat dinner and get baths when they get back. We'll have a little Bible time and hit the hay early. Sleep is the biggest shortage around here and will be for a while, I expect. Nothing worth having is easy, but baby Jude is definitely worth having and we're praising the Lord for him.