Elijah's blessing

We blessed Elijah on February 6th, when he was just over one week old. Usually people wait a little longer to bless their babies, but we wanted to do it while Mom was still here and Dad flew out to join us for the weekend. CW and his girlfriend Melissa also drove up from Provo, and Elise and Eric and their families came down from Meridian and Nampa. We are so lucky to have so much family come. We love them all so much. Cora especially was so excited to wake up from her nap and find her house full of cousins, aunties and uncles.

Since the baby was so young we didn't want to do the blessing in church, but we also just didn't have room in our little apartment for everyone to gather there. We asked our bishop when he visited us in the hospital after the baby was born if he knew of a place where we could hold the blessing, (we were thinking like another church building where they didn't have a late ward meeting) and he invited us all to his home and also offered to cook a meal for the whole family! It was so generous of him and his family and we were so grateful to them. They cooked a delicious pasta meal for us.

We sang "I am a child of God" to start and then Eric gave a quick spiritual thought. He talked about the meaning of Elijah's name and read from the scriptures about Elijah coming to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children. Then Ryan blessed Elijah and it was beautiful. In the circle was Ryan, my dad, Christopher, Eric, Jedd, Bishop Schroeder, and another bishopric member, Brandon Seals. Elijah was good and quiet (asleep) the whole time. We got permission from Bishop and the stake presidency to Skype with Mom and Dad and Heidi's family in Hawaii during the blessing so they were able to hear as well.

Thanks to Jedd for the great pictures. Here is the whole gang.
And here is our new little family of four!Unfortunately I left right after we took pictures after the blessing because I suddenly started feeling very sick. Mom took me home and we took Elijah with us so I could feed him, so we missed his party and hanging out with all the family. To use one of Ryan's expressions, I felt like a truck had run over me all the rest of that day, with crazy fever, chills and aches. The next day I went to the doctor and got a diagnosis of mastitis. Mom was scheduled to leave with Dad on Tuesday but she said she would stay to help me out since I was sick, so she stayed til Friday. Luckily after that first terrible day I started feeling better quickly, helped by the antibiotic.

Altogether Mom was with us almost a month and helped us out so much. She helped me get ready for the baby, cleaned my house, did dishes and cooking, helped me make two quilts, and she started one herself, she bought us a dresser for Cora and Elijah and re-painted it for us, took care of me when I was sick, took care of Cora so I could rest, before and after the birth, and much more. We are so grateful for everything she did for us and just for her company during that time. Cora got so used to having her around, she is still asking for her sometimes. We love you so much Mom!