Happy New Year!

Greetings! We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. The tree below is from Christmas Eve, the Brooks celebration. The tree usually ends up half buried as we unwrap together after the service at our church.

The three older cousins (Naomi is #5, and another was born last week!).

On the 26th Matthew went back to work while my dad, brother Peter, Naomi and I traveled to Turlock to visit with my Great-grandma. She's still a speed walker, and plays Phase 10 with us whenever we give her the chance. We don't play her favorite game, Scrabble, because she always wins!

Thank you, Melissa! She loves bragging with the shirt you got her.

New Years meant a huge family gathering (both sides and lots of extended family members as well). Here's some of the huge spread of turkey soup, fresh homemade rolls, cold cuts, and lkeftover desserts we enjoyed. Yum!

Elizabeth is two months older than Naomi. She's a little extra-miracle baby. And she's happy an amazingly high percentage of the time.

One of MANY games of Settlers played on New Years Day.

For Christmas, Matthew and I got Naomi a Johnny Jump-up. It says it's for 4 months and up, but she's so stiff it's her new favorite toy! This is the first time she got in it. The toys aren't even attached yet, but within 2 minutes she'd already christened it with her spit-up. Hooray for machine-washable!

Merry Christmas!

We are getting excited for Christmas, and are again reminded of how incredible it is to have a Savior who came to live with us and experience every temptation of our lives - the same Jesus who now reigns victorious over all of creation! We hope your Christmas is filled with hope and joy as a result of God's gift to you of his son.

We are still staying with Matthew's Aunt Miriam in Roseville. She has been very gracious with us as lots of Naomi's stuff (stroller, Pack N Play, swing, ...) invades her living room. We have a candidating trip scheduled for Jan 10-11 for Faith Bible Church in Willows, CA, less than 2 hours from our families. Thus far we feel positive about the situation. Please praise God with us and pray for discernment for both us and the church, and also for God's workings in all the circumstances of the trip and the potential job. Meanwhile Matthew continues to work at Health Net and I am mostly enjoying raising Naomi. She just woke up happy, which is wonderful!

Below are some pictures from the past month.

Just in the past week or two Naomi doesn't have to be swaddled in order to sleep more than 10 minutes at a stretch. We enjoy watching her be peaceful (her bed is in the living room). She sleeps 9-10 hours a night now! She makes up for it by taking very short naps during the day and is often fussy - but the happy stretches are progressively increasing.

When other methods fail, Naomi ofter calms down and gets curious again when Dad makes her Superbaby.

I love how she folds her hands and curls her legs up under her for a little nap after many of her feedings.

Hooray for naked-time!

On Thanksgiving Day we stopped by Turlock to see G'G'G'ma Jessie before heading up to Stockton for my first Brooks Thanksgiving. My Great-Grandma is 96 years old, and was very excited to meet the next generation of her family.
Great-Grandma Hallsten came to Roseville the day after Thanksgiving, and she and Naomi got properly introduced.

Grandpa Keith loves his new role, and frequently takes Naomi outside for walks when she's protesting, or holds her so that Matthew and I can eat when we're over there.

The whole gang.

Naomi and I went with my parents, Peter and his girlfriend Stephanie, and Krista to get their Christmas Tree. I took Naomi on the same tree swing I went on every year as a child at Snowy Peaks Tree Farm.

Sorry the video below is a little longer than I intended - 92 seconds of Naomi cooing and kicking. Call me an obsessive first-time mom. ;-) There's no amazing finish, so feel free to stop it whenever you've had your fill. Meanwhile we'll be working on figuring out how to use our video editing software so we can give you 20 seconds next time....

Wow! Has it really been more than a month?

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. :-) And today Naomi is officially 2 months old.

I posted new pictures on Facebook in a public album, so you can all see them at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50486&l=2f173&id=692971443

This past month has been eventful! Naomi is learning how to nap - she's awake more during the day than we hear is typical for her age - she almost never sleeps more than an hour at a stretch. BUT more important, she sleeps well at night consistently! It's usually 6-7 hours, and the start time for that is getting more consistent as well, and then she goes right back down and sleeps another 3 hours or so.

Matthew started permanent status at Health Net last week, so we'll have benefits provided through his work in another month, and it was just in time to have paid holidays for Nov and Dec! Hooray. :-)

In the search for a ministry job, overall we are both encouraged - things are still happening, even as we look at December. He is preaching at a church in Willows this weekend and is turning in an app for an Assoc. position in Massachusetts by Sunday as well. Then next week there is another app due and the accreditation (towards ordination) interview for the Alliance.

Emily, meanwhile, is enjoying being able to stay caught up with chores, and to make a little progress towards moving ahead with paperwork and preparations for Christmas. This is possible in part because Matthew's Aunt Miriam returned home last week, and she has taken over care of her kitties. For now we are staying here with her and she is being very gracious in sharing her car, her kitchen, and her TV with us.

The last month we've really enjoyed watching Naomi learn. She's really started to smile at us, and will laugh when she's well-rested. Just in the past few days she's started cooing. As Grandpa Keith puts it, Naomi is very stiff - she holds up her head, and sometimes even her body, when we hold her up on one shoulder. She has a definite preference for being upright and able to use her legs. Forget rolling over or sitting up - she wishes she could stand! She's also learning about her hands, sucking on her knuckles and grasping Daddy's arm hair - but still nothing intentional. Last week she went in for her 2-month check, and she's at 10 lbs 10 oz (60th %ile) and 23 in long (75th %ile).

For Thanksgiving, we're heading down to Turlock in the morning to visit Emily's Great-grandma and let Naomi's Great-Great G'ma meet her, then we'll celebrate with the Brookses in Stockton for the first time as a couple.

God bless your travels and family time as you celebrate as well. We truly have an amazing God who has met our most pressing needs abundantly.

More Naomi Pictures

We have been enjoying our little girl. We still want to use this blog to update you on what is going on in our lives but right now there isn't a whole lot of new information to report. Matthew continues to work at Health Net and look for a pastoral position. Emily is embracing the challenges and joys of motherhood.

We are enjoying our daughtrer and times with friends and family and just trying to keep up with life. Maybe we'll post some of the details of the birth later but we'd rather tell you in person (or over the phone). Feel free e-mail or call or set up a time to meet up. We appreciate your love and prayers for our family. Now on to the main event: more pictures of Naomi.

We call Naomi's bouncer her "happy chair" we have it on the kitchen table under a bright warm light which she loves and she spends much of her happy awake time in it.

Here she is staring at the light.

Emily's Mom has been coming over frequently to help out, which has been much appreciated.


So far Naomi has been mostly great for her various visitors.
We were pleased that she was able to enjoy this visit from great grandma and granpa Brooks.

Naomi is growing fast but is still quite a tiny little bundle, carrying her is no burden at all.

Naomi did not enjoy her first bath.

Here Naomi enjoys some time with Grandma Brooks. She is a very loved little girl.

This is our first "family picture".

There are even more pictures on facebookfor those of you who have profiles there. Please do let us know how you are doing. We love you all and always enjoy hearing from you.

Intorducing Naomi Linda Brooks!

Our daughter was born on Friday, September 26th, 2008. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 and 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are home and doing great. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful healthy little girl and thank all of you who have been praying for us. We will post more details about the birth later but for now, by popular demand, here are some pictures of Naomi's first three days of life outside the womb.

Naomi likes being swaddled (the process of getting swaddled isn't always as fun) and has been sleeping great the last day and a half.

Naomi is a wide eyed little girl and likes to look at faces, here she makes eyes at mommy.

Grandpa Hallsten came by on Sunday afternoon to get acquainted.

Daddy is learning quickly how to sooth his little girl and loves holding her in his arms.

Mommy did a great job throughout labor and delivery and was feeling well enough in the hospital to be able to really enjoy her little girl.

We know that every parent think their child is as cute as they come but even Naomi's nurses went on and on about how cute she is. Just look at that face!

Maybe we shouldn't tell her too much about how cute she is. She already seems to be mugging for the camera. ("Dad, make sure you get my good side").

We are looking forward to introducing Naomi to all of her new friends and family over the coming weeks and months. So far she seems to be hitting it off with everyone she meets. Look at the smile she put on Auntie Krista's face.

We will do our best to keep this blog updated with more pictures and stories as Naomi grows. We feel blessed to have so many people who care about us to share this special joy with.

Answer to prayer

Thank you all for praying about the health insurance! We heard Tuesday that Blue Cross is going to let us go on their Portability Plan after all. The supervisor went back and listened to all my archived calls, and the portability guru agreed that we could be covered through the end of December by this plan - praise God! Basically, that means that instead of having to go on COBRA and spend $889/month, we're going to cover just me for $208/month (and then Naomi for a little more). Matthew will have a separate individual plan here for less than $100. So we'll all have good coverage, and we'll still be able to pay for gas/groceries without dipping (much) into savings.

I also had a doctor's appointment today - 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced. That's no guarantee of any time estimate for when labor will actually start, but it was encouraging enough that the doctor doesn't think I'll need to be induced, which is very good.

Preparing for Baby Naomi's arrival

I keep stalling actually posting anything, thinking that "maybe tomorrow" I'll have time to get pictures organized to post with the news, but that's not happening so I'm just going to say something. :-)

There continues to be a lot of activity in our lives - more than I anticipated for this time period! Matthew (and others) would probably say that's just because I overestimate how much I can get done without feeling busy.

Before I go on, what you're all wanting to know: Due date is 12 days away (9/25), and doctor says she's probably not coming early. There are more contractions now, but I don't think she's really dropped yet. (A blessing - so far I have not been very uncomfortable so the waiting isn't so bad yet.)

For actual events, we go back to late August: My dad and I went out to breakfast for my birthday (family tradition) and a couple days later mom and I went shopping for my birthday - she got our family a Pack N Play and then we went to La Bou and I had soup in a bread bowl and a frappuchino-like thing. Yumm! Thanks for the lunch, Mom! And the place for Naomi to sleep.

The next day was Sunday and we were in for a surprise when we visited Grace Valley, our Davis church family. They offered the overwhelming blessing of having an 'in-lieu-of-baby-shower' donation, and we are just humbled and blessed by their support, both in prayer and in this show of their care for us. As a result, our health expenses related to the birth will be minimal. Thank you, Grace Valley!

Next, on that Thursday my Davis friends threw an actual shower and afterwards we felt like we had the practical stuff! Thermometer and nail clippers, changing pad, clothes for when she's older, sippy cups and toddler silverware/dishes, and many families' favorite books. Anna did a beautiful job decorating her backyard and we sat outside in the evening breeze - then ate rich cake! Thank you, ladies!

The next day we moved to Aunt Miriam's house to housesit for the six kitties and to have a place with more space and privacy for the time directly surrounding Naomi's birth. We have now thoroughly invaded Miriam's space. We just feel blessed - what a privilege and provision for us! It makes it even nicer that Aunt Miriam feels the same way since it means she's free to visit her daughter's family for the first time in quite a while. Thank you, Miriam!

And the next day (so far we've only gotten to last Saturday!) our home church, Hillcrest Alliance, blessed us with a baby shower. The decorations all had animals all over them - it was a happy rainbow Noah's Ark theme. Many of them got together on a group gift and supplied a beautiful, comfortable glider, a stroller, and an activity mat. Again, the women were insightful about the practical things we really need! We now have a car seat, bathtub, diapers, Boppy, etc. Thank you, Hillcrest!

That afternoon we met with our doula (=professional labor coach) and got to know each other and talk through things. My friend Angela (who got all those great Noah's Ark decorations!!) was over to look at baby stuff and catch up a little bit before she needed to get back home, as well.

Since then, I've just been doing the last shopping trips and trying to get things more organized. On Wednesday I cooked about 10 meals and put them all in the freezer so we'll have instant food when we're most sleep-deprived. My mom and I went to Babies R Us yesterday to get some of the last needed things (and a few splurge things from gift cards :-) ). Last night I packed our hospital bag and diaper bag. Today I finished making one of those Bebe Au Lait-style nursing covers (supplies: ~$6; blanket sold online: $35). If I were to make another one, I'd make a couple small changes, but overall I'm very pleased.

So, the main thing I want to say is that God is amazingly good. We have all that we need and more. Secondly, we are starting to actually feel ready for Naomi to let us see her!

One prayer request:
We got some information this week that means our insurance situation is not as straightforward as we originally thought. The insurance company is working with us (partly because I received mis-information from one of their employees), but we ask you to pray that we will have insurance that covers the end of the pregnancy and the delivery, and that it would cost less than $900/month (what they're quoting us now). Thank you!

P.S. Quick update on the job search:
Matthew continues to send out lots of resumes, and has follow up steps with a few churches right now. Overall, we are both doing well emotionally and have found that in general we are able to rest in God and enjoy the time we have here in Roseville. However, there are good days and bad days (today we got discouraging news).

Work at Health Net is going well. Matthew put in a request for a 4 10-hour day schedule and was accepted, so he'll have Thursdays off starting this week. Also, Matthew asked if they would be willing to hire him on as a permanent employee (right now he's going through a temp agency), and they said he should apply when the position is posted again. So again, we are being provided for and blessed beyond what we need. Thank you, God!

Whew! Congratulations if you read all this... sorry I'm so exuberant! May God provide for you as well in your times of struggle.