Happy almost 1 week old Samuel and Happy 11th Birthday Elijah!

I just want to say that your prayers for strength for me have been so graciously answered. Today I finally felt a bit more normal :). These past few days have certainly been challenging. The hardest part for me apart from the exhaustion has been going day by day...or more like moment by moment...not really sure what we are doing. It is easy for me to become discouraged or overwhelmed when our days lack order, yet we're still trying to figure out how to best balance our responsibilities at home in addition to caring for/spending time with our Samuel. Sometimes I just want to cry...well, I do cry. But then I feel better and even in the most difficult of days, I've seen the Lord's loving hand caring for our every need. Sometimes the nights are so lonely as I sit awake getting milk to take to our baby in the morning. I can't wait for the day we can bring him home and I can wake up to feed and cuddle with him. I ask the Lord to help me be content; to help me to keep my mind on Him; and I'm just so thankful that He is always with me and there with our little Samuel too. What a friend we have in Jesus! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
Samuel continues to do well. The nurses tell me that he's a very good boy :) He had a rough night last night and couldn't keep down any of his food. But he filled his diaper 3 times today as they let his digestive system rest and his x-rays and blood tests came back normal, so they think he just needed to "do his business". They were going to start feeding him again this afternoon and hopefully he will keep it down.
What seems to work best is for Daniel to go up to the NICU in the morning to take up the milk, talk with the nurses/doctor, and spend time with Samuel. Then I try to go up in the afternoon while the younger ones are napping. I took Abigail with me today. She wrote a sweet little letter to her new baby brother to tape up on his bed. Then in the evening, if we have someone to watch the children, Daniel and I go up together...this is my favorite time :) Last night I got to hold him for about an hour; I love to sing to him like I do with all our children as I tuck them in bed for the night.

Yesterday was Elijah's 11th birthday. Elijah is such a sweetheart. He is always willing to help me with whatever I need. He's so good with his baby brothers especially.
Elijah LOVES to read and study and memorize and learn! He loves books! He writes and draws very well and I love hearing him play the piano.
Something that I love about Elijah is how quick he is to take heed to instruction. If we tell him, for example, the importance of washing his hands before eating, he will be looking for a sink and some soap before every meal. If we tell him how good it is to rise early, he'll do it right off the bat.
He loves to make jokes and as corny as some of them are, he always has us laughing.
We wanted to make his birthday special but hadn't had much time to plan. One of the nurses in the NICU who has known Daniel and I since we were children, gave us a gift card to In and Out burger. So we all went out for cheesburgers and fries and Elijah got a chocolate shake too! :) Then, Daniel took all the children bowling. They had so much fun and you should have heard them cheer for each other. They put up the guard rails on the gutters so even the little ones were able to knock down some pins every time. I think I had the most fun just sitting down next to Eliseo and watching. :)
Grandma and Grandpa came over in the evening to watch Elijah open his presents and we had cherry pie for dessert. I'm so thankful the Lord gave us Elijah...little brother to 1, big brother to 10 :)