Photo Shoot...Check it Out!

Check out our photographer's 8 favorites from our session with her today: http://www.babystepsstudios.blogspot.com/

One Week Old

Here's our little Joanna after an eventful first week of life. She's becoming a pro at the basics of babyhood: being cute, eating, sleeping, crying, and filling her tiny little diapers. She went to the doctor today, and weighed the same as when she was born, 8 lbs. 3 ozs. She's in the 75th percentile for height and weight...much bigger than her big sister at this age. Here she is at one week old, and, for comparison, a similar picture of Phoebe at the same age.

Joanna having tummy time...

Phoebe having tummy time...

One Happy Family

We are thankful that our hospital recently relaxed their policy regarding young children at the hospital.  As a result, Phoebe had the opportunity to welcome her little sister Joanna into the world today, a day earlier than expected.  Even Phoebe's baby doll was recognized as an official visitor to the hospital!  We are looking forward to being home as one happy family tomorrow.  We appreciate all of the notes and expressions of well wishes and congratulations.  We are blessed by our growing family, our extended family, and our friends from around the world.  Enjoy a few additional pictures from the past couple of days below.  If you are a Facebook friend with either Greg or Val, we have uploaded a new photo album of pictures.  More will come in the next few days as we continue to collect photos from other family members.

 

 

 

"I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving." (Psalm 69:30, ESV)

One little, Two little, Three little Savages; Four little ...

As of 12:05 PM this afternoon, the Savage tribe grew by 33%.  Joanna Beatrice Savage weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 21 inches long at the time of birth.  Daddy is glad to report that Mommy and baby are doing very well.  We're enjoying a nice quiet evening in the hospital, and we're looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when Joanna will get to meet her big sister Phoebe as well as other family who will be coming into town.

 

 
"Joanna" means "God is gracious."  In Scripture, a lady named Joanna, Herod's household manager, was healed by Christ and became his follower (Luke 8:1-3).  Later, she was among those who found the empty tomb early on Easter Sunday and ran to tell the apostles what they had seen and heard (Luke 24:1-10).  Joanna is also the feminine form of "John" or "Jon," the first name of both Val's dad (whose birthday was yesterday) and her brother.

"Beatrice" mean "blessing" or "blessed."  This was Greg's paternal grandmother's first name.

Our prayer for her is that, like her namesake, she will tell others of the blessing of God's grace found only in the resurrected Lord:

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles (Luke 24:1-10, ESV)

As we wait

As we wait the arrival of little Savage #2, I (Greg) enjoyed taking a look back at our posts from when Phoebe was born.  I thought you might enjoy them too.  Check back for updates (hopefully) later today.

• Countdown to launch ... - the inaugural blog post as Val had started the induction process with Phoebe
• A Quick Update from Baby Central -  an update while we continued to wait
• One little, two little, three little Savages - the celebration of Phoebe's arrival

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope" (Psalm 130:5, ESV)

Awaiting Baby Savage

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child. For right now, these are the images we have of what she looks (or looked) like (click on the image above for a closer look). From top: at about 2 months gestation at the beginning of June with a very large head, at about 4.5 months in mid-August with her little hands infront of her face, and the same day with the view of her bottom, proving that she is, in fact, a girl. She's been growing for 39 weeks now, and is very active. It's amazing to think that she could be here any day, changing life as we know it quite a bit. Phoebe will be a big sister and we will be parents of two. Obvious statements, but still somewhat unreal to grasp.

Seeds Family Worship

Thanks to Emily O., I now know that the 5 albums from Seeds Family Worship are online, and we can listen to them for free. What a great resource. Here's the link: http://www.seedsfamilyworship.net/media_listen.php

Enjoy! As I prepare for delivery, these songs have brought me much comfort, as I know true comfort that endures and sustains comes only from the Lord.