Introducing Salem Hélène Mokouendza

She was born on the 18th but I’ve delayed posting because we just couldn’t seem to decide on a name. Well, we’ve finally named her, and here are some pics of her first few days on the outside.

Meeting the family!

Going home from the hospital

We couldn’t get our very skilled midwife so we opted to go to the hospital instead of staying home this time. It was a really bad experience with medical staff lacking skill and I might continue to have nightmares about it for a while yet. However, we all survived the ordeal and came home with a beautiful baby.

The bedroom bed set-up (before and after)

Note: as you can imagine this has not been working well and we’re “looking for answers.”

Orcxance’s younger brother Many, his wife Felie and their son Vanquer. We are so glad they came to stay for a while and Felie has been an amazing help.

Salem means “peace.” There were many opportunities during my pregnancy to not feel peaceful, and we’ve had some big disappointments and many months spent waiting, as well as some intense illness that was life-threatening to me and our baby. God’s peace filled up those troubled places even in the midst of our difficulties.

Hélène means “shining light” and we chose this name after Orcxance’s grandmother that he was closest to. This name reminds us that we are to shine brightly for Christ during our short time here.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” -Ephesians 2:13-16