Happy 1st birthday to Salem!

Ironically, Salem’s middle name is Helene. “She’s named after the hurricane,” my coworker said to her friend. Actually it might be the other way around. She got her name before the great storm of 2024 obviously. It has been quite the first year of life. And she did survive the hurricane.

After an extremely traumatic post-birth experience, and several days of being unnamed, we chose the name meaning “peace” for her. She was born during a particularly unpeaceful time for our family.

But as we wrapped up her first year, God has brought more stability and peace to our family over this last year.

Despite moving across the world, changing homes, jobs, neighbors and lifestyle, we are living in God’s peace, and Salem is a reminder of that.

She is a sweet girl with a silly laugh and a great smile. She loves crawling all over the place, standing up and walking on her knees, for some reason or other.