My last posting had me on the other side of the age of 30...some might say the preferred side.

In honor of good poetry (and Christopher's images from the hearth), I'll paint you a picture of life at our household at the moment (laying it bare, baby):


And that is the picture. I'm feeling overwhelmed. How do you take care of a whirlwind of a 3 1/2 year old and a baby who defies my deepest wishes and attempts at a regular routine (I'd take even a full nap without the screaming; I spend most of my time holding Ranen). I feel like I'm short-changing Adah in the mom-department. Or no-changing. How can you play or discipline when you're constantly holding/nursing/changing the baby, and still attempting to recover from delivering a baby?

I'll take any suggestions or prayers in that department.

A few general updates:

• My brother Tim came to visit the week after my birthday for a few days. It was good to see him, I wish we lived closer together.
• Ranen is on medication for Reflux, just add that bit of fun to the pot. Forcing liquid down a colicky baby.
• I started some vegetables and flowers from seed a week or two after Ranen was born. I now have a load of seedlings with no place to go. I'm on crack. Did I think I was going to haul off, a few weeks post-partem, and dig up my beds, amend the soil and do all the planting? Crack, man!

Well, I tried to come up with some more interesting bullets, but I couldn't. All I know is chaos and dirty diapers at the moment, all on about 5 hours of sleep. Nice.

Oh, wait! I do know...Ranen has been smiling.

Kind of wipes it all away.

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, typing with one hand. The overhead light is dimmed to low soldering yellow. Ranen is bundled in his panda blanket; sleeping intermittently in my lap. We think he has a cold. Sandra has a cold, and so does Adah.
I'm hoping to garner some rest for my wife. Ranen had already begun to demonstrate good sleeping patterns; we had a couple of nights where he slept in four hour segments. Last night though there was nothing longer than two. So I'm sitting here, coaxing him to sleep for an hour longer so mom's body can heal.
Vance and Michelle visited tonight. It was just what Adah needed. Despite her cough she has not slowed, while mom and dad have waned. I relish her laughter. It is the sound of trickling water over stones in an enchanted forest. She is growing up too fast and her awareness stuns me.
Yesterday, she asked me if everybody dies. (She had witnessed a funeral proceesion some weeks ago and, well, we answered her questions honestly.) So I explained to my 3 year old that "Yes, everyone does die. But God doesn't want us to die until we're old. Really old." She's a vibrant engertic little girl, singing songs at random. She tells me that the tree we're passing is pretty. Yet in the back of her little innocent mind is the knowledge that everyone will die one day. Nonetheless, she is beautiful.
I love my children and I have discovered that I did not need to divide my love to love them both. The Supply is ample. (To divide that which is infinite is meaningless.)
So I sit here in this deepening night, basking in the gift of my infant son, reflecting upon the beauty of my children, and I see the outline, shapes, and hints of what we call Life's Meaning: that fathomless Well whose streams we have but barely tasted.

Ranen had his two week weigh in today. They usually want infants to come up to their birth weight by two weeks old. Ranen weighed a whopping 9 lbs. 15 oz.! Glad to know all that breast feeding is not all being spit up. (Always seems like it.)

I wanted to thank all the friends and family (and friends that are family) who have helped us during this crazy period. God seems to be drilling it though my head lately: I cannot do it on my own. Thank you for the meals, for watching Adah, for cleaning the kitchen, for grocery shopping, for advice and encouragement! I could go on and you know who you are. Postpartum recovery would not be going as well if it was not for your generosity.

A random aside: I stopped by the health food store today (a very brief visit to get Adah's vitamins) and I picked up a loaf of spelt bread. The only ingredients were organic spelt, filtered water, and sea salt. It was actually pretty good bread. I have no idea what spelt is, but I guess that's what google is for (grin). I've been trying a non-allergen diet of sorts for Ranen since he seems to not have as much gas (read: crying) when I don't eat those Girl Scout Cookies or white bread (no wheat in the spelt bread). We'll see how it goes...

My good friend Jonathan Conrad wrote this poem and left it at our door just after he heard about Ranen's birth:

Into The World You Come

Into the world you come,
Silent and weak;
A babe conceived of love
Now wrapped in prayer;
The passionate, ardent prayer of parents.

Oh, how those whose love has created you
Fall to their knees in prayer for you now.
A feeling welling inside them of screaming prayer for your fragile body.

Friends, whose love you will soon know, are consumed with thoughts of you.
Though unaware for your courageous fight to be a part of this world,
They pray for God's protection.
They pray for your Creator's presence to shield the home where you will sleep.
They envision the angels steadfastly protecting you.
One hand touching your small frame,
And the other on the shoulder of those giving you care.

May you one day be told of your first cry
And the tears of overpowering joy it brought forth.

Your strength is known, little one.
May you never remove the protective armor
For which the Lord has given you this night.
Praise God and those whose steady hands gave you the breath of life,
That you may rest well in the home prepared for you.