Wendell Thomas

He's here. Little Wendell Thomas. 

After the worries and uncertainties about his health, he's here, perfect & whole.  All six pounds, three ounces, 19.25 inch length of him. 

There is no feeling in the world like the joy in a mother's heart when her brand-new little one is handed to her for the first time. All the anticipation & discomfort & unknowns of the past 40 weeks & recent hours is fulfilled, overfilled. I wasn't sure the second would be quite as exciting as the first: I needn't have worried. A brand new little being brought into the world has no match for instantaneous joy & love. 

Fiona does love him...though we're still adjusting. She's very loving & gentle with him, but shows her defiance of the new situation by refusing to call him by his name, & instead referring to him as "that boy".  I'm curious to see how long she can hold out. 

And this right here...a father & his son. Makes me a little weepy. He was so worried he was never going to get a son. Never have a buddy to take out on the farm, teach the ways of a man, fish together with, leave a legacy for, carry on his name. I had a feeling this little one was a boy. Whether it was some subconscious knowledge, or just a fervent hope for Dar's sake, I didn't think of Wendell being anything but Wendell for most of my pregnancy. The name Wendell was his idea. He never met my dad, but somehow this brings him back a little. Perhaps our Wendell will have some of his namesake's mannerisms, looks, personality, perhaps not. But he'll always carry part of him. 

He'll be two weeks old tomorrow. And life seems as if little Wendell has always been in it. 

Oh, Wendell, you are loved & adored. We love you as you are now, sweet, innocent, beautiful little boy (you'll be beautiful til you tell me I can't anymore), and we'll keep loving you as you grow & become little you. Whoever that may be. 

Here's a verse I prayed for you in the womb whenever I'd think about you, and it's still my prayer for you, a tiny little boy now, but one day to be a man:

Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9