Brotherly Love

Corban Stewart Emerson

Corban is here! He made his appearance on Friday, November 23rd at 10:45 GMT. He weighs 7lbs 4oz and is 19 3/4 inches long. He looks alot like Caden did when he was first born, which is a good sign for him, since Caden has always been an adorable little boy. The name Corban comes from Mark 7:11 and means, "A gift dedicated to God". His middle name, Stewart, is in honor of April's grandparents on her mom's side. They are beautiful, God-fearing people that we hope Corban gets a chance to know and emulate in the years to come... The first ever pic snapped of Corban (besides ultrasounds of course...) Washing all of the gunk off
**wink**
Daddy with his new little boy...I have TWO SONS!!!

Corban Stewart Emerson
Uploaded by emersonstogo

Go Blue!!!
Corban, meet your big brother!

Brothers
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Caden has been so sweet and curious with his new baby brother...
Getting a very good look at this new baby brother...
Corban and his mommy! April is doing great and was so amazing during labor...with no meds!
First pic of the three of us...there was no way we could have gotten Caden to sit still for this...
About to hit the road after36 hours in the hospital
Leaving the hospital
Corban has been a great baby in the first day and a half of his life, nursing well, sleeping alot, and being very sweet in temperment. Thank you to the Lord our God for another precious gift of life. Delivering in Africa, we learned even more astutely that newborn lives are incredibly fragile and precious, and that Corban's life is truly in His capable hands. It was different without any of our family or dear friends to be here with us, but we did enjoy the intimacy of it being just our family. We knew when we signed up that leaving behind friends and family would be the biggest sacrifice we make as missionaries, but God fills the holes and sustains us through your communication and prayers. We love you all so much!

38 weeks and....

This will be the last pregnant April picture in 2007. We are going to the hospital tonight to be induced. Please be praying that everything will go smoothly and we'll have a healthy baby. We should be holding little Corban on Friday. Keep checking and we'll let you know when he's here.

Look What I Can Do!

Caden has been getting very active these last few months. He loves to climb, run, throw, flip, swing and whatever else he can think of (or sees his daddy do!). He loves to learn what new things his body can do, and he is very coordinated and determined. It looks like he is going to be a good athlete, which makes his daddy especially happy!

Cade_playing
Uploaded by emersonstogo

2 things you have to look closely for: One, Caden "singing" as he plays the piano, and two, the big basketball belly belonging to Caden's mommy! Ok, well maybe the second one you won't have to look too closely for!

Truck Tragedy

Many of you know that our truck was destroyed in an accident last month. You can read more about it and learn how you can help by visiting our Ministry Blog. Scroll down to find the entries we wrote about the accident.

You can also view a PDF file we created to inform people and help in the fundraising process by clicking here.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and encouraged us with phone calls and emails. We are truly blessed with an amazing support network. Please continue to pray for God to provide the funds we need for a new vehicle!

Growing Boy

Caden Darrel Emerson was born in Montgomery, Alabama and celebrated his first birthday in Albertville, France. This year, we were on the road between Togo and Ghana when he turned two. If you have been following us on our Family Blog for awhile, then you are quite familiar with our Mattie the Bear pictures. We took pictures of Caden with Mattie every month until 6 months, then 9 months, 12 months, 18 months and now 2 years. Mattie has traveled thousands of miles all over the world to be with us today. He has been stuffed in boxes and mailed over the ocean, shoved in suitcases and squished into plastic bags. We brought Mattie to Ghana with us just to keep up with Caden's milestone pictures.

Click here to see Caden's 2 week old and 1 year old pictures with Mattie.

As usual, we couldn't choose just one. We hope you can get a small glimpse of our toddler's fun personality.

Baby Blessing

On October 22nd my home was invaded by a group of women very special to me. As a surprise to me, my teammates had planned a baby blessing and invited several of the expatriate women in town. They walked through the front door with balloons, yummy treats, cards of blessings, and an amount of energy that was exploding through their smiles.We enjoyed cupcakes, cookies, chicken salad croissants and punch. We told stories about our births our the births of our children (don't worry, scary stories were not allowed). We played fun baby shower games (you should see the pictures these women drew of my baby) and started a pool for the baby's weight and due date. My favorite part of the evening was when each woman shared with me a blessing for my baby, my family, or Brett and I as parents. I will cherish these notes (they came "scrapbook ready") throughout my child's life. Lastly, they gathered around and prayed over me...words cannot express this feeling.

Thank you to all the women (and girls) that made this night so special for me. In the midst of a very difficult time, you were the peace and energy I needed. I thank God for blessing me through each of you in His own special way.

Our TWO Year Old!

Many of you know that Caden turned two on October 25th. Due to the craziness of our lives, we decided to postpone his birthday party until a more calm date. We also thought it would be fun to celebrate with family, so be looking for pictures of that sometime in December. He's just two...he'll never know we celebrated his birthday a month and a half late, right?!

In honor of our world traveler, I thought it would be fun to post a list of all the places Caden has been...beginning with the day God created him.

1. Knoxville, TN
2. Memphis, TN
3. Birmingham, AL
4. Searcy, AR
5. Nashville, TN
6. Atlanta, GA
7. Israel
8. Montgomery, AL
9. All over France
10. Switzerland
11. Rome and Florence, Italy
    
12. Ghana, West Africa
13. Togo, West Africa
14. Benin, West Africa
15. Dallas, TX

Just this week we had pages added to Caden's passport because it was filling up so quickly. How many of you had a passport at two years old?

Swimming

Here is an almost forgotten video of Caden swimming for the first time with floaties. This was taken at Coconut Grove back in September. Caden continues to be a little fish and definitely prefers swimming with his Daddy. (I can't imagine why!)

Floaties
Uploaded by emersonstogo

35 weeks

So here I am at 35 weeks and five days. My countdown says I have only 30 days until my due date....I remember saying that with Caden and he was born 2 weeks later, so we'll see. I also thought I'd take this post to tell you about our doctor here in Accra, Ghana.

His name is Dr. Hiadzi, and although I can never remember how to pronounce it, I am so excited to know he is my doctor. There were several things that really impressed me about him and scored some big points in this mommy's book.

• He has little accent making him very easy to understand. (Most of the time I have to ask Ghanaians repeat themselves before I get it.)
• He understood me every time I spoke...we're talking my normal voice, no fake-Ghanaian accent.
• He showed genuine interest in Caden (big points for that one!)
• He answered all of our questions without hesitation.
• His confidence in the baby-world showed in the questions he asked and the comments he made.
• He thought it was ridiculous that someone would tell us what gender our baby was if they didn't know for sure (which happened to us twice in this pregnancy).
• He knew our baby was a boy with the first glance.
• He graciously explained to me how the "folds" would look different if it were a girl.
• He joked around with us when we asked for a photo of the baby's boy parts.
  
• He offered me his hand to sit up after he was finished wiping the ultrasound gel off. At 35 weeks pregnant, you can imagine what a welcomed gesture this was.
• He took my talk of contractions seriously and put me on a fetal monitor for half an hour.
  

This man is answer to much prayer. We will be seeing him every Wednesday until the day of delivery. Also, I'm not sure if we've officially announced our baby boy's name.

Corban Stewart Emerson

Corban is found in Mark 7:11 meaning "a gift dedicated to God" and Stewart was chosen to honor my grandparents, Bill & Dot Stewart.

Halloween, Such As It Was...

We didn't really celebrate Halloween this year. It's not because we're anti-Halloween or anything; we both love the holiday and normally enjoy it quite a bit. This year, however, we are living in a culture far different from our own, a culture in which almost no evidence of Halloween can be found, besides a few bats and spiders hanging from the ceiling of a grocery store that caters to expatriates. On top of that, we're not even with our teammates at home in Kara, our little family that usually fills the culture hole that entered our lives when we moved to Africa.

BUT, since Brett's mom went to the trouble to send Caden a lion costume all the way from America, we put it on him for a few minutes (until he started sweating to death), snapped a few pictures, and ate some Smarties. Happy Halloween, West Africa style!