Celebrating our BABY’s first birthday came at the perfect time…after a lot of craziness and life changes, we were able to re-focus and celebrate God’s beautiful gift to us in our VIBRANT spirited, Evelyn Faith! It’s fun to think that one year ago, I was in labor here in South Korea…cleaning up my front yard, grocery shopping and getting the other 3 kids ‘ready’ knowing that I would be in the hospital for a couple days! It was a very different birthing experience…one that I now can look back on as a unique and BLESSED miracle (and very fast too!!) **Note to any woman having a fourth baby…go to the hospital when you think you’re in labor–you can trust yourself!! AND those little ones come into this world in a much faster fashion than the first!! Not to give too many details, but I arrived at my wonderful Korean Womens’ Hospital and 32 minutes later, yes 32 MINUTES later, Evelyn Faith entered our world in a very exciting way!! There was no pain medication for this birth!! YIKES…I honor all of you moms who do this naturally by choice!! There is PAIN like nothing else in childbirth, but I’m actually really thankful I experienced it, and more thankful that sweet Evie was healthy and beautiful!! (Even though the first time I saw her, she was being held upside down right before my eyes–being whacked on the back…all I remember is hearing a lot of Hongul, Dave repeating, “Clamp the cord, clamp the cord, clamp the cord….”, and silence from my tiny upside down baby…within a few seconds, the cord was clamped, the foreign language continued and I heard Evie’s sweet voice for the first time…thank you, Jesus.)
Here’s what she looked like a year ago….she was my littlest, at 6lbs, 3 oz…but, has done a great job of catching up in true Ayer form!
The first time we met...love at first sight!
Kimchi, anyone?
She was so alert and CUTE right from the start!
Oh, how I fell in love...from her head right down to these precious toes!! You MUST love baby feet.
One of the most beautiful things about Evie’s birth story is God’s sweet grace in the timing and details of it all. We chose the name, Evelyn Faith–Evelyn is my Dad’s Mom’s name. She is in heaven now, but she left a godly heritage through her faith and life–passed to my daddy and then to me–now to my children. It is a beautiful, eternal heritage–there is nothing more precious to me. So, to honor her, my dad and our family, we chose the name Evelyn–which means “LIFE”…isn’t that beautiful?! And her middle name, Faith…because our prayer is that her life would be one of deep and beautiful faith in Jesus and that she would pass this heritage on.
I hadn’t told my Dad (oh, my sweet Dad!!)…I probably should have, but when Evie was born, he was the first one I called and shared the name with. He was so choked up from half a world away, I wasn’t sure what he thought. The next day, he called back to explain…Our Evie had been born on my Grandma’s exact birth date–101 years later. Amazing.
Some of the most fun things about Evie…she is so much like Ella was at this age…it’s like I’m re-living it all :)…Evie is a delight, bright eyes, so fun, sweet personality..loves her mama!! She is SUCH a physical baby, just like Bug was. And she growls and yells alot–hence the name, Bear. (She has always growled–not sure why, but we’re addressing the yelling part!) I guess we have one child with an inner kitty and one with an inner bear–we’ll see how that all plays out 😉 ! Evie is my FIRST baby to not eat any baby food and to play in the toilet!! She loves to watch and observe all the action and her world around her. Evie does not seem to realize she is one of 5–she sort of acts more like a first born, or an only child! How this happened, I’m not sure! She has a FUN personality–and as Maija says, “She’s such a smooch!” It’s true…you just want to smooch on her!! Oh, her little chubby legs are delicious, I adore her dimples, and I LOVE her blue blue eyes. She has a twinkle and I can’t wait to watch her bright spirit grow and her personality emerge in the coming months, years…lifetime. I really can’t believe I get to be the mommy to all these miracles. Thank you, Father. Happy first year of life, Sweet Evie.