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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Shepherd

from here...
to here!

Shepherd [shep-erd] noun 1. a person who herds, tends, and guards sheep. 2a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people.

We are a family blessed (and sometimes not so blessed) with privilege. We are white, middle class, heterosexual, married, home owning, business owning, "average" people.  But that average isn't accurate, because the majority of the world is not sheltered by so many privileges.  I will get around to writing out this baby's birth story eventually, but for those of you who know our family, this was our 5th pregnancy.  Beginning in 2005, we carried a baby boy - Noah - who died inutero at 21 weeks.  In 2007, we had our lovely life-changing Hazel.  In 2009, we had a miscarriage at 8 weeks, immediately followed by a 4th pregnancy with out son Ian dying inutero at 22 weeks.  When, in early 2011 we learned of pregnancy #5, we shouldered our defenses and hoped for the best (medical interventions were highly utilized to keep the pregnancy healthy) and planned to cope with the worst.  After a virtually uneventful pregnancy, I was induced to deliver a healthy term baby.  After about 22 hours of not super productive laboring, the dr broke my water, I recieved an epidural, and was checked for further dialation.  When reaching for my cervix, the doctor said our baby had just grabbed her finger.  stunned, she attempted to push his hand back into my uterus when she discovered his head was resting on top of his umbilical cord - cutting off his oxygen supply and a sure sign of potential risk to the babys life.  We had an emergency cesarean section, and 5 minutes later, our baby was born.
Perfectly happy, calm, content, and uncannily peaceful.
He was watching over a people. His family. Protecting us from soul harm, and guiding the doctor - by the hand - to do so.
Shepherd Glenn is the newest love in our lives, and by naming him such, we hope his name will be a blessing to him and those around him.  That Shepherd will use his ihereted privileges to protect those who are without, to guide those with, and watch over relationships with virtue, respect, and honor.  To us, there is no better name.
-Liz

3 comments:

  1. OK, well now I'm crying. I can't wait to hear the whole story of his birth, but I'm content with this today. Shepherd is officially an awesome kid. It's like he knew he NEEDED to be here, safe and sound for you guys. He's lucky to be born into such a sweet family.

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  2. Congratulations! I'm so happy to hear about your healthy baby boy. He's a blessing to your family as you are to him.

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