Little Experiences that Warm the Heart

Today was a good day. I say this for several reasons: first Aleki is one week old today! YAY! Second is that Lady Hiva is still pregnant with Tau’aho and both seem to be doing well.

Aleki has become the center of our world over the past several days. You may say, “Of course he is, he is a newborn and they demand plenty of attention.” And if you did, you would be right. However, having waited SO long to have a little person in our home, we welcome all of those demands. As I said before, Aleki is a week old! And he still looks and feels healthy. So we may be new at this, but we must be doing alright to some extent.

Plenty of people comment about “welcome to having a new born and (fill in the blank)” some say ‘dirty diapers’ others say ‘no sleep’ etc. We smile and say, “Yes, thank you.” In the past week, we have been up all hours of the night. We have taken naps when Aleki was sleeping so that we were on the same schedule. We have changed countless diapers. Aleki has decided to pee on both of us at different times while his diaper was off! (The first time that happened was to Lady Hiva at 0230 in the morning. I woke up to both of them screaming—she out of shock and trying to get it covered and he because he HATES to be naked. Haha!)

There is not a moment that Aleki does not have one of us in his face telling him a story or kissing his tiny little cheeks. The poor guy didn’t know what he got himself into. Watching him sleep so peacefully brings a smile of joy to my face--every time. I miss him when I am at work and cannot wait to hold his little hands as I read a story to him.

Actually, it truly warms my heart (I know that is a trite phrase, but it is true) to watch Lady Hiva be a mother. I love to hear the love in her voice as she talked to Aleki and tells him all about her day. To see the kindness in her eyes and the smile on her face as she holds him is special. She has waited a long time for this and I am so happy a loving Heavenly Father has sent Aleki to us.

Aleki is quite the popular guy. We have a steady stream of people coming to say hello and to hold him. We have a new plate of cookies every day! Woohoo! So if you like cookies, have a baby…hehe. We even had one family come over to sing him to sleep. We even had some friends sneak into the building and decorate our door.  Everyday we have packages arrive from around the world with notes of love and encouragement. Their words mean so much to us. What an awesome support group. We are truly blessed.

That same support group has prayed for 8 months for Lady and Tau’aho. And it is working! People that known our story or read WHITE LILIES IN AUTUMN have been so good to us. Lady had an appointment today and there are still no signs of labor! YAY. We even scheduled her C-section. It is amazing to think that every week we are so thankful we made it through and here we are at the end and will possibly make it to week 40. We never thought we would make it this far, nor did we think we would have two babies for that matter. A testimony that prayer works.

A fun fact is that as of right now, Tau’aho and Aleki weigh only a few ounces different! We had to give Aleki a pep-talk to eat “lots” so he can grow big and strong…otherwise his little brother will look like a giant next to him.

So here is to celebrating being still pregnant and having a healthy one week old!