oh baby!

So, I'm a week behind everyone else in making this announcement...partially because my blogging capacities have been limited to small windows throughout the day, but mostly because every time I try to write about this, my keyboard is in serious danger of being flooded:-) I have a son! Ambrose Levi Yonke entered the world at 2:50am on Thanksgiving day, after 26 long hours of completely unmedicated labor (mission accomplished!...and you all thought I'd wimp out.). Weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long...he is totally gorgeous and totally healthy. Birth is an amazing thing--and it's amazing to think back to the moment I first knew I was pregnant, the first time I heard his heartbeat, the first time I felt him move... and to realize that it was him inside me all along...even though I'm just now getting to meet him. He is so complete, so perfect. He looks just like Matt, and he has the FUZZIEST head of hair that I can't stay away from:-) Officially THE cutest baby EVER. (I'm allowed to say that.) His name, after St. Ambrose of Milan (who converted St. Augustine), also means 'immortal' or 'divine'. Levi, meaning 'joined' (as Levi, Leah's third son 'joined' her to Jacob, who otherwise did not love her). In essense, "joined to the divine". Life is beautiful. I'm sure--completely sure--that time must have stopped the moment he was born. I wasn't expecting to feel so...MUCH. What an event! The minute that his tiny little body was placed in my arms is locked in my mind forever. I can still hear his first cries (or grunts, rather...), I can clearly see the look on Matt's face when I announced that we had a baby boy, and it plays back in my mind every time I marvel at his compact, yet perfectly constructed body. Life is such a miracle, such a gift. There is no other thing in the world that could so effectively and single-handedly instill such feelings of wonder, humility, joy, and fear...all the while causing you to fall more deeply in love than you have ever been. And so we're praising God for our son. Matt's blog is full of pictures and links to more pictures...but, I can't resist...:-) Oh, this is probably one of my favorite pictures ever...my whole family, totally un-posed, looking at baby Ambrose:-) My aunt Theresa made them all matching t-shirts that have their respective "aunt" or "uncle" names on them.