Travis Nathaniel

Our oldest son and his wife have been dealing with a possible miscarriage for the last week...waiting on blood tests and ultrasounds to tell them whether or not their first child would make it. Unfortunately yesterday it was confirmed that the baby, indeed, was not alive. We are very sad for them. I asked my daughter-in-law if they had thought about doing something to honor the baby such as a name or a special letter that they would write. Understandably, she said they hadn't really had time to process it all and therefore hadn't thought about it.

Today she told us that they decided to honor the baby by naming him Travis Nathaniel. I think that is a lovely name.

Society would have us to believe that at 6 weeks it isn't really a baby yet. Just a bundle of tissues. From the above picture, I beg to differ. This clearly looks like a baby to me.

The Bible is particularly clear on this. One of the most well known verses about babies, Psalm 139 says this..."For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest part of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

We are very sad that this little one will not be joining our family this side of heaven but maybe someone somewhere who might be considering an abortion will stumble upon this little post, see the picture of the 6 week old baby and change their mind.

And Now for the Announcement

This is my handsome first born and his beautiful wife, whom I have decided to call BW#1 here on the blog. That stands for Blessing #1's wife. Pretty creative, huh? Anyway on with the announcement. We Skyped with them this week where they shared with us that they are expecting a baby!

I must admit that I haven't wrapped my brain around the fact that we will be having our 11th child in July then welcoming our first grandchild in October. While planning on how to update the nursery I am thinking things like, "What do I want my grandma name to be?" and already thinking of ways to make sure we are the grandparents to this baby that we want to be while having a newborn and 9 other children at home. A good friend and I were discussing these things and we came up with the fact that generations ago this was pretty common. Mothers were still having children while their oldest were getting married young and having children. But then along came the thought that we should have 1.7 children(whatever that means) and get right back into the work place.

We are extremely happy for them and look forward to watching them as they grow through this new phase of life together but one thing has come to my mind as I contemplate them sharing their wonderful news with family and friends...The value of life. When you are expecting your first baby, then your second and possibly even your third, you will get all kinds of congratulations. Babies are wonderful, how exciting! But when you are announcing your 5th or 6th or 10th you get anger and rude comments. When did the value of that little life become so much less than the value of a first or second baby?

Just some thoughts of a mama to many and soon-to-be Grandmother.