Surprised Again: Proof That Our God is Not Small

So as everyone who knows me, or has seen me lately knows, I am pregnant with our third child! Marvelous, mysterious grace of God!  

He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful mother of children. Praise the LORD! Psalm 113:9

We know we are expecting a daughter in a little less than 10 weeks time. Here is a note I wrote for facebook to announce our choice of her name:


So we've finally decided on a name for our daughter.  We like to name our children based on the meaning of the name, which can be challenging. There are so many names that are beautiful that don't have a meaning we like and names with wonderful meanings that are just impossibly ugly.

After talking about what we wanted this baby's name to mean we kept coming back to the idea of abundance or overwhelming fullness. As most of you know, we aren't supposed to be able to have children, and Iain was adopted as an embryo. His birth was the result of many tears, prayer, pain and money. But God remembered us, and a healthy boy was born! Elinor was a surprise after 6 years of infertility and we thought: God is good. Look how he has turned our sadness into joy. But little did we know that God planned to do more than we could ever ask or think, and we found ourselves expecting our third child. This verse kept popping into my mind:

"Surely your waste and your desolate places
   and your devastated land—
surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
   and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
 The children of your bereavement
   will yet say in your ears:
'The place is too narrow for me;
   make room for me to dwell in.'
Then you will say in your heart:
   'Who has borne me these?
 I was bereaved and barren,
   exiled and put away,
   but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
   from where have these come?'"
Isaiah 49:19-21

We laughed in disbelief over Elinor's birth, we struggle to process the overwhelming gift of this new child. We feel stretched thin and inadequate to hold this gift in so many ways. And we feel deeply blessed that the Lord would deem it good to give us a new baby. Truly we can say:

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

So we began searching for names that meant abundant, full or rich. We came across Horeb (horrible!) and Revayah (revile?). Then we came across this psalm:

  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
         So are the children of one's youth.
   How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
         They will not be ashamed
         When they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:4-5

How fitting that this psalm out of any of the other instances of the words full or abundant would be the instance of the word full that prove to be our baby's name. The Hebrew word is melah. We are naming our third child:

Mila Evangeline Douglas
"The Lord has filled me with his good news"

"The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people..." Luke 2:10

We look forward to meeting Mila (pronounced with a long e sound, meelah) in person somewhere around August 11, 2011.

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
         You have anointed my head with oil;
         My cup overflows.
    Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
         And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Psalm 23:56-6

Our Joie

 
Nora is now 17 months old and big for her age. She's in the 80th percentile for weight and 77th for height. After all the trouble she had gaining weight in the beginning we are thankful for her robust health now. Robust is a wonderful word to describe our daughter. She has a zest for life and a fearless determination that is both a blessing and a curse. She loves babies and cars and the two men men in her life: Daddy and Iain. Her vocabulary is immense! As I recall, Iain was still fairly quiet at this age, but Elinor is adding multiple words a day now. Here is a sample:

Daddy
Mama
Ee-ya: Iain (sometimes you can hear the final consonant)
Mee-wa: Mila (Daddy has taught her this word even though she has no idea what it means)
baby
bop-bop: drink
bwankey: blanket (she is nearly inseparable from this lovey)
ba-car: bug car (she loves to "count" VWs with Iain as we drive around town)
fWOWr: flower
hungwee: hungry
pwettee: pretty
peepo: peekaboo (the game)
pee boo: Peekaboo (our dog)
bosh: baseball (This is the name of Iain's favorite player. Whenever a game is on TV Nora says: bosh!)
uh ho: uh oh
oosh: shoes
foo: food
ish: fish
mo mee: more, please
ba: ball
ni ni: goodnight
hew wo wo: hello
hi
bye bye (she will say this automatically if I say "Talk to you later!")
NO!!!!!!!!! (she loves this one)
Yesh: yes (sometimes accompanied by both arms straight up in the air)
Oush: ouch
dentl: gentle (we've been trying to teach her this as she loves to wrestle and hit!)
eye
no: nose
mou: mouth
whee: slide
gey dow: get down

She is our little firecracker! We love her sparkle and vibrancy and pray for wisdom on how to direct her strong will into the Lord's will. I love that she'll always be strong and not be afraid to tell people no, something her Mama isn't very good at. She is a great argument for genetics as she takes after her Great-Grandad, Grandpapa, and Daddy in looks and personality. She is her Daddy's girl and it is a delight to see them enjoying each other so much. We are so blessed by our little surprise!

Life, Interrupted

Its time to come back to the blog. Yes, I'm busy. No, I'm not sure who reads this. But I have a terrible memory and I need to express what God is doing in my life. So I make no pledges of fidelity or regularity in posting, but I am not dead yet and neither is this blog. :)

Tomorrow is Iain's 5th birthday. What a sweet celebration. It's just good to sit and bask in the goodness of the Lord that I have a smart, funny, sweet son who loves trains, tow trucks, ambulances, and VW Bugs. A boy who is as full of contradictions as I am, wriggling and complaining in church, and yet also making up his songs of praise to Jesus. A boy with chocolate eyes and an electric smile. A boy who loves his two sisters with all his heart even though the youngest hasn't even arrived yet. From roughly 80 cells created by strangers, to a freezer, to my womb, to the contemplative little boy that I hug and kiss every day, who tells me he loves me "a million eighty-four, a million eighty-four, a million eighty-four" every night at bedtime.

Thank you Lord Jesus, for remembering my son and watching over him all the days of his life. Thank you for this beautiful gift of love and grace to me. Help me to teach him Your ways. Amen.