What's in a name?

Names are kind of a big deal to me.  I'm a teacher and have heard many names over the years.  Some unique.  Some impossible to pronounce.  Some that roll off the tongue.  Some that you have to think about every time you say it.  Certain names that I may have loved before are now forever off the table because of students who I've taught in my 9 years as a music teacher.  I also knew that I didn't want a name that no one knew how to pronounce.  The poor child who is forever correcting people (including the teacher on the first day of school!).  If you get a mean teacher who doesn't like to be corrected, you've started the year off on a pretty bad foot :)

 

Names mean something.  We carry our name with us our whole lives.  We can cause others to cringe or smile when they hear our names based on how we've lived our lives.  Names are important to God too.  Every name that you read in the Bible was given to someone because of its meaning.  And sometimes God changed a person's name because He changed their life's purpose.  Needless to say, I felt a lot of pressure when picking a name for my child!

Not only did I feel the weight of this particular decision, but I tend to be indecisive in GENERAL in life!  Choosing what to order at a restaurant can be a paralyzing decision for me!  My mom used to say, "This isn't going to be your last meal.  Just pick something!"  I seem to recall a similar conversation with Clayton when arranging the nursery.  He graciously said, "I love you, but we don't have time to discuss the psychological issues associated with decorating."  Poor, poor Clayton.

After MUCH discussion and total fear of commitment (on my part), we came to the conclusion that we wanted our little girl to be named "Elsie Lynn".  The name Elsie means, "consecrated to God".  It was (and is) our desire for our baby girl to live her life to the glory of God.  But not only did the name have a wonderful meaning, it was shared by a woman who we deeply respect and love.  Elsie Moses Detweiler married Linwood Detweiler, my Gramps, when she was 79 years old!  My Grammie, Mildred Olsen Detweiler, died of Leukemia when I was 9 years old.  Gramps grieved the loss of his "honey" and was quite lonely for several years.  Much to our surprise, Gramps eloped with Elsie and left a message on my parents' answering machine to let us know what he had done!  None of us had ever even met Elsie!  But God (and Gramps!) knew what He was doing when He brought this precious woman into our family.  Elsie has been an example of graciousness, love, acceptance and service.  Every one of the great-grandchildren in our family were born after Elsie was part of the family.  She has accepted them as her own and prays fervently for them.  She served Gramps selflessly until the day he died and we couldn't be more grateful for her.  We pray that our Elsie will exemplify these same qualities and she will come to understand how special it is to carry on this name. 

Her middle name, Lynn, is after my Gramps, Linwood.  He was a man of prayer, one who committed himself to the reading and memorizing of God's Word and a comedian (at least in his eyes!!).  We loved my Gramps.  There was never a dull moment when he was around and we knew that he prayed for his children and grandchildren every single day.  He also prayed for missionaries all over the world with such commitment that he prayed for one man for years after he had died (unbeknownst to Gramps!)!  Gramps turned almost everything into a song and could often be heard whistling.  He was a cheerful man who's desire to see the gospel spread around the world was evident.

Sweet Elsie Lynn, you have been born into a family with a rich heritage of love, humor and desire to serve the Lord.  Your Mommy and Daddy are incredibly grateful for this history and we pray that you will bring honor to this name for the sake of the kingdom of God and His glory!

Baby Elsie with Grandmother Elsie August 2014

The Journey Begins

As much as I was excited about being a mother, pregnancy was not on my list of desired activities.  To be perfectly honest, I was pretty scared of the whole process.  You would think, by now, I would remember that God's mercies are new every morning and He would give me strength to get through it, no matter how difficult it was!  And He did!  The first 20 weeks were just plain yucky!  I felt gross all day every day and popped my anti-nausea meds daily!  I'm not afraid to take medicine...that's for sure!  Once I got through those first 20 weeks, pregnancy was honestly a joyful event for me!!  I LOVED the sweet care that others gave (who doesn't love to be given special treatment?!).  Complete strangers would walk by me in the grocery store with a big smile and give words of encouragement!  That really doesn't happen any other time of your life...no one is smiling at me now telling me how good I look ;)  Of course there were the strangers who offered unsolicited advice and who tried to touch my belly.  But the normal interactions far outweighed the bizarre encounters! 

 

I was convinced that I would go into labor after my due date.  I just didn't feel any different at 38 weeks then I did at 20...except a lot bigger!  There were never any "scares" or "close calls".  I never even felt Braxton Hicks!  Life just went on normally. 

 

March 20th was the first day of Spring and happened to be a day when both Melissa Moad and I were off of teaching!  Melissa was 36 weeks pregnant at the time so she and I decided to have one more "girl's day" before the babies came.  We went to the Hershey Pantry for breakfast, got pedicures at Hershey Nails and then took advantage of the free Rita's Italian Ice that is given out on the first day of Spring each year!  I got home around 2:00 and decided to put my feet up for a few minutes before I ran some errands.  Being 38 weeks pregnant, it was no surprise that I had to use the bathroom as soon as I sat down.  I waddled my way into the bathroom, sat down and my water broke!  Being that my doctor is a good friend, I sent her a text message telling her what happened and said, "That wasn't my water breaking, right?  It was probably just something else, right?  I'm not in labor, right?"  She, of course, called me immediately and asked exactly what happened.  She then said, "You should probably call Clayton and head to the hospital."  "But, wait, I feel normal.", I said, "This can't be it.  Are you sure?  Now I don't think I'm ready!  I wasn't scared before, but now that it's happening, I'm not sure I want to do it!"  Dr. Brackney (Kerri) assured me that these were all normal feelings and she would make arrangements for her husband to watch their children so that she could be there with me (on her day off!).  I'm so grateful that God gives us friends to care for us...this one in particular in a very hands-on way!  Poor Kerri! 

 

Clayton, in the meantime, was in charge of a meeting of 25 people that afternoon.  We had decided on a signal a few weeks prior so that he would know when it was crucial that he answer the phone!  I tend to call him just to tell him what I had for lunch sometimes...so he needed to know if it was really important (umm...all of my calls are super important...he should totally take my calls all the time everywhere.).  I called once, and then immediately called again.  He excused himself from the meeting (in which he was currently talking!  Awkward!) and heard the news, "So...I think my water just broke."  "Okay...Okay...Okay.  I have to go.  I'll call you right back."  He walked back into the meeting and said, "I'm  going to have a baby now!" and left work.

 

I checked in to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center at 4:00pm on Thursday, March 20th 2014.  From the time my water broke, I labored a total of 16 1/2 hours, and 3 1/2 of those hours were active pushing!  Clayon, my two nurses and Kerri were all with me every step of the way and I couldn't be more grateful for them!  Modern medicine, hospitals and medical professionals are wonderful things!  The Lord was gracious to me.  It was not a fun way to spend 16 1/2 hours of my life...but I know it certainly could have been worse.  After pushing for hours, I knew that I had to get the baby out.  Dr. Brackney said that 3 1/2 hours is the limit and then they would need to use a vacuum...and if that didn't work, a C-Section was the next step.  I also knew that Dr. Brackney had to be in the office at 8:00 and if I didn't get this baby out quickly, she wouldn't be there for the birth!  Those two major motivating factors gave me the energy to give it my all in 3 more pushes! 

At 6:24am on Friday, March 21st 2014, our 6 pound 13 ounce, 19 1/2 inch
Elsie Lynn Lee was born!  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

 



...a very good place to start

 

In July 2013, I was convinced that I would get ANOTHER negative pregnancy test.  I had taken one every month for 9 months and they were always negative.  I just knew this one would be the same.  And yet, I decided to take it while Clayton was at work. (Since I'm a teacher, I'm home during the day in the summer!  Yeah summer!!).  When the test read "positive", I "candled".  Candling is a term that Nana (my mom) came up with in college.  It's that feeling you get when a rush of fear/excitement comes over you and it feels like a burst of flame in your chest!  Nana has a lot of weird words and phrases...you kind of need a Sproul family dictionary to be part of this crew.  Whoops, I got side-tracked!  After taking a few more tests and pacing the upstairs hallway, I prepared for how I would tell Clayton that we were, in fact, finally pregnant! 

 

When Clayton got home from work, I was chopping fruit in the kitchen, like the home-maker wife that I am. ;)  He sat at the counter with the mail as he does every day.  I began telling him about the Premier Designs cruise planned for March 2014 and how I was working on ways to earn the trip.  He periodically nodded and mumbled words of approval as he opened the electric bill.  "I'm really excited about the trip, I'm just not sure who's gonna watch the baby.", I said, as he continued his nodding.  Silence.  He looked up with a confused expression.  "The baby?", he said, "What baby?"  I gave a sly smile and looked at my belly.  In true Clayton fashion, he began to cry...and laugh...and pace!  (He's the crier in this family...although, I gave him a run for his money the next 9 months!)  We hugged and processed the immensity of the news!  Clayton continued to pace and finally cried out, "I don't know what to do what my hands!!  Should I build a crib or something?"

 

It felt so wrong to follow through with our plans for the evening (mattress shopping!!) when our world had just been rocked!  But this is the beauty of life...exciting milestones in the midst of mundane tasks.  I remember the night that I told Clayton I loved him and he knew that meant I was ready to say yes to being his wife.  We went to the grocery store and couldn't believe everyone around us was just going on with life!  And I remember Gramps going to a restaurant the day Grammie died.  He told the waitress his honey had gone to be with Jesus just a few hours before.  This is life.  Highs, lows, but mainly "in betweens".  This news was certainly a "high" and we prepared for the reality that our lives would never again be the same.  Grateful for grace through it all. 

 

One of the only pictures we took while I was pregnant:

 

As my nephew Ashton says, "Tante's baby looks creepy!"  Yeah, she kinda does in this picture!

 

We couldn't wait to find out if it was a boy or girl!  We were hoping to order a cake at a bakery to reveal the gender to our parents and siblings....but the bakery was closed by the time we got out of our ultrasound appointment.  So we bought cake mix, red food coloring and icing.  Guess we didn't put enough food coloring in since the "pink" came out more like off-white!  Doesn't have quite the same affect when you cut into the cake and everyone looks confused!

 

 

 

Start from the very beginning...

I've decided to start a blog to keep up with family far away and have record of Elsie Lynn's life!  I'm not one for baby books, so I thought this might be easier!  There are only so many things I'm willing to put on Facebook...and I recognize that most of FB doesn't care about every detail of our daughter's life anyway!  Most posts will be written by me (the mom) but occasionally some by Clayton (the dad). 

God has been gracious to our family and we would like to remember His benefits!  You're welcome to follow our journey with each other and Him!