Ending Maternity Leave

I guess I can say I’m officially done with maternity leave now.  David and I started back with our itineration schedule this last Sunday.  It was nice having a slower pace after the birth of Jeremiah, but honestly I’m not sure if it was exactly ‘leave.’  We spoke at a church 8 days after Jeremiah was born, we’ve had people willing to come to our home to have meetings, and the skype and email communication never really slow down (even though David might have taken up some of my slack).  Some of that is in the nature of the ‘job’, being home for only a short time, and having so many people to meet with. And some of it is just me.  I like to stay busy and on top of things.

Before this time is too far behind us, I thought I would share some pictures and show you what we’ve been up to during our leave and the holidays.  Like you, we’ve enjoyed family and friends and WAY too much food.  Most of all we’ve enjoyed our first Christmas with Jeremiah and our first Christmas as a family of four.  We love it.

Jeremiah is one month old.

Arthur, the dog, helping keep Jeremiah in the chair while sleeping.

Jesse's first Christmas present.

Reading the Christmas story on Christmas morning.

 

Jeremiah making faces.

I had more than one person ask me if I was carrying an ewok.

Jeremiah taking a bath with his bullfrog cover-up.

Jesse stuck his finger in Jeremiah's mouth. We weren't expecting that.

Jesse at the Houston Zoo (in a fish tank).

My sweet, sweet boys.

Jesse experiencing Texas in January.

Jeremiah got in the way of Jesse's bed jumping.

This is how Jeremiah and I spend a lot of time.

 

 

 

 

Newest Goranimals Newsletter

The newest Goranimals newsletter is out.  Check out the ‘Newsletters’ tab at the top of our blog and you can find it there dated “January 2012″.

There are a couple of other changes to the blog that might also be worth noting:

In addition to the new ‘Newsletters’ tab, there is also a new ‘Pray For Us’ tab.  This page lists current prayer requests for us and the ministry here in Ukraine.  Many of these requests are in our newsletter, however this list has some additions, some praises, and offers a more real time list of what we are praying about right now.

If you are interested in getting a notice everytime there is a new post, you can sign up to receive email notifications on the sidebar of the main page.  All you have to do is enter your email in the space beneath ‘Follow Goranimals via email’  and then confirm your request in the email that WordPress sends you.

Finally, the best new addition to the blog is at the top of our header picture:  a new Jeremiah animal in our family photo at the top of the page .  Shannon promises to post some new pictures of him soon.

Peace of Christ to all!

 

It’s a boy: Jeremiah Robert Goran!

At 7:15 this morning Jeremiah Robert Goran was born.  Surpise, suprise, another Goran boy!

He weighed in at 7lbs, 8ounces and 20.5inches.  That is 3.4kilos and 52cm for our Ukrainian friends.

Mommy is doing great and so is everyone else; including the now older brother Jesse who gave Jeremiah a nice pet when they first met.

Thank you for all your prayers!  We are so blessed!

 

 

Another First for Jesse

Jesse is a little over 18 months and it feels like every time we turn around we are recording another first.  David will often say, hey Shannon, Jesse just did…and I say, actually he did that for the first time last week.  Sometimes we disagree on what a true ‘first’ might be and when it was, but I doubt we will ever have that trouble when remembering Jesse’s first trip to the emergency room.

We were visiting a friend in Kentucky after visiting a church a couple of Sundays ago.  We were just getting settled in to talk when Jesse tripped and fell face first into the rock hearth of the fireplace.  From where I was sitting I couldn’t actually tell if Jesse had even hit anything until David grabbed him, examined him, and proclaimed ‘Jesse busted his mouth’.

David ran him to the bathroom and we were holding him over the sink to make sure he didn’t choke.  We found one of his teeth laying in his mouth, and I couldn’t bring myself to look to see what the other damage was.  We knew we needed to get him to the ER to see what else was going on inside that little mouth.

I dropped David off at the ER doors and I went and parked.  When I ran in, David was talking to a nice gentleman in the waiting room who appeared to have an ankle injury.  But what I soon learned, is that he also was an oral surgeon and was helping to put David’s my mind at ease.

When we were finally seen, we discovered Jesse only lost the one tooth, but another tooth had been pushed way up and he needed three stitches on the inside of his upper lip.  Jesse, who is usually one for attention, was not very excited about any of this.  But, of course, he handled it like a champ, and today is doing much better.

We have since been to the dentist and she said that 5 teeth had experienced trauma and now it is a wait and see game as to the outcome of those other teeth.  The only good part about all of this is that it happened while Jesse is still very young, so he is likely to heal and this incident occurred while we were in America where we knew better what exactly to do.

The day of the accident. His lip was still numb from getting stitches.

The day after the accident. Feeling better while playing with our friend Maggie.

2 days after our ER visit. This was the face I was given after I told him to get down off the hearth. He was definitely feeling better.