....then came baby in a baby carriage!

eden is 20 days old today and i'm finally sitting down to type out my thoughts from the last 3 weeks. never could i have imagined a more exhilarating experience than having a baby added to our home! she is equal parts terrifying and inspiring, and we love her so very much. i'm not sleep-deprived by definition, just tired. but on the flip side - I CAN BEND OVER AGAIN! (there's no greater thrill, people) i can still remember what it's like to get 12 consecutive, uninterrupted hours of sleep, yet i still melt every single time i get up in the wee hours of the morning and look at her little wrinkled crying face as she screams for her mama. jed and i both are entirely smitten by this little child. she entertains us with her hat full of tricks, scolds us when we're not efficient with meal time, inspects our every feature when we talk to her, and continuously makes us the happiest people alive!

we put a lot of time into choosing her name. we didn't want to cramp her style with a boring name, nor did we want to overwhelm her with a crazy name. eden means “paradise.” we chose Eden for a variety of reasons. first, we love the name. she has been our little “ede” (pronounced ee-dee) for many months now. second, we want eden to always be drawn to the thought that life on this sin-cursed earth is not an end all. and thank God it’s not. the painful consequences of living in a sin-cursed world are a gift from God pointing us to find our hope and joy in the life to come, the life in which God will restore eden-like sinless perfection to his newly created heavens and earth. it is this future paradise that we hope and long for. third, we want eden to always be drawn to the thought that eden-like sinless conditions can be brought to her own heart while on this earth. through Jesus Christ, God sees us as current dwellers in his spiritual eden. eden, out of which we were expelled because of our sin, is once again our dwelling place because God has brought us there by his great grace to dwell with him by the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. her middle name is janetta. we wanted to honor both of our mothers ("jan" and "etta") and their sacrificial love for each of us, and this name just made the best sense. it doesn't hurt that she was born on mother's day weekend too.

as we would have guessed, ede looks mostly like jed. as an in-law in the tyrpak family, i was hoping that my genes would finally rise up and be the first dominant in-law gene in the tyrpak clan, but no such luck. you can spot a tyrpak a mile away, and ede is no exception. she's just beautiful - rounded cheeks, trusting eyes, delicate lips, a tiny chin, and dimples that'll take your breath away. i'm biased - i understand - but she's so much more wonderful than we thought she would be! maybe it's because, after nearly 7 blissful years of marriage, we were finally ready to embark on parenthood; or maybe it's because she truly is a piece of heaven in our family. i don't know. i just know that i feel so priveleged to be her mama, and her presence in our home is the best gift possible. God has shown such kindness to us in giving us the gift of life! there were so many complications and things that could have gone wrong, but the grace given throughout this pregnancy and birth has been more intense than any complication could've been.

she's a mama's girl and a daddy's girl and together we're the three bestest of friends. we're so thankful for this new adventure, and with every step along the way we praise God for our little gift in eden.

calm before the storm

not that life is extremely calm right now, or that we expect a full-out storm, but it's a little bit that way. it's a rainy monday morning,and i'm officially on maternity leave. our baby girl will be here this week! our weekend was spent trying to gather a few last minute diapers, make a few returns, and stock up on necessities since it'll be awhile before we emerge to the land of the living again. this is a special monday morning though. it's our last monday without kids. yesterday was our last sunday without kids. next monday, we'll hopefully be coming home from the hospital as a family of three. and then... LIFE! late nights, early mornings, snuggling with a newborn, memorizing her face so we won't forget anything, relishing in the newness of life that God has so kindly brought into our home, and from what i hear going through about 8 diapers a day! it's here and we could not be more excited!

i was telling jed yesterday that this huge sense of "heritage" and what we will give our daughter has been occupying my mind lately. i want to get a few maternity shots this week sometime because that is the one thing that i would love to have from my mom - shots of her pregnant with me. unfortunately, i wasn't born in the digital age, but fortunately our baby is! i want her to have proof of how much joy she brought us even before she was ever born, along with the pictures of her happy parents. i've been thinking about the next 20 years as a whole, and just praying desperately that we do a good job with this little one. it'll only be by grace if she happens to be anything close to kind, loving, caring, and gentle because right now i am afraid of only passing down my sarcasm, quick tongue, inflexibility, and massively scarring fat stage circa 1993.

as i left work on friday and sat in the train on my way to meet jed for dinner and a movie, the last year of our lives overwhelmed me. my maternity leave started april 30th, and my first day at this job was april 27th, 2009 (during the famous unemployed and homeless act of 09). i remember so well this time last year - the newness of my job was freaking me out a bit, i wondered if i would ever get used to my co-workers and my position, and the weight of jed still needing a job was on both of our shoulders. in the last year, we have settled into solid employment, life in the city, and the joy of eminent parenthood. i don't feel older yet, just a lot more full. the last time something this big happened to us was when we got married, and during the first few months of our marriage, the hugeness of how it would change our lives was nowhere near our thinking. looking back, it was the most meaningful and wonderful thing to ever happen to us. likewise, i know that in a couple of months or years, it will hit us just how drastically changed and vastly meaningful our lives have become. jed and i are inseparable and deeply content, yet our lives are about to fill up with even more meaning and depth. just an incredible thought.

this week will be full of little projects, pre-op appointments, a couple of errands, naps, a little decorating, and mentally preparing for what's ahead. can you really prepare for something like this? can you truly be ready? it's like being on the roller coaster at the top of a hill, and the dork running the machine lets the cars sit at the top for just a little too long. you keep hearing the clicking noise, and you try to hold your stomach for the plunge, but NOTHING could've prepared you for the rush of being let go. it's absolutely terrifying and still the funnest ride possible! right now we're anticipating the hill. as the week goes on, we'll be stuck at the top with the endless clicking, and next monday will begin the most terrifying and wonderful moments of our lives. how can it not be exciting?!