WELCOME TO OUR WORLD, ISAAC THOMAS VAN RYN! As of July 1st, Tom and Wendy Van Ryn have added to their family with a beautiful son. Mad props to my little Wendolence for going through the whole thing drug-free! Brava, baby girl!

It's kind of funny, because I'm so darn happy for them, but it still didn't get me all jazzed or anything to have Caleb. I was worried that it would shoot me over the edge of wanting a baby RIGHT NOW, but I know that God is protecting my heart and mind against...shall we say unrealistic desires?! So my whole heart just goes out to them in joy FOR them! (Rather than half-heartedly, because I'm self-concerned, you know?)

I have had a great day after a rough week. My heart has been going in all different directions at once. Due to various circumstances in life, I've been through a lot of grieving this week. (Our prayers are still going out to the Magruder/Harris house for the loss of Kenji.) So it was nice to have a day that was just BUSY fun, you know? Jonathan and I ran errands almost all day - and I only took half a miracle pill this morning, and still feel great!

Our errands and preparation today had nothing to do with Caleb, and everything to do with getting ready for our big trip out to MN and IN at the end of this month. We got the wedding presents for the Sommerfeld's, batteries for all our electronic equipment, and new ice packs for our coolers so that our spending on the road will be minimal. We're actually PREPARED! It's a great feeling.

It's funny to think about how much we have to do before Caleb gets here. (And when I say funny, I mean absolutely PETRIFYING!) We have been blessed with so many people's generosity already and are starting to pull together the basics that he'll need, but there are a lot of things we have to do to get ourselves ready! We're going to need to take our childbirth classes and hospital tour, I'm going to need to take the breastfeeding class, we need to get the nursery ready, and...well, that's all I can even cope with right now, so we'll call that good! And every weekend in July is taken up completely right now, so August is going to have to be very, very long!

God's grace is sufficient to get us through it all, though, right? And his mercies are new every morning! And my SON will have the benefit of having a mommy who BELIEVES THAT!