Throughout Elisabeth’s pregnancy with our first I would talk to the little one.  Creating giggles for Elisabeth and anyone who happened to be in the room.  With a deep voice (think baritone) I’d place my mouth close to Elisabeth’s belly and say, “Hello Baby.”  

In the later stages of the pregnancy the little one would respond with kicks and elbows to the ribs (fun for me to watch, not so fun for Elisabeth to feel). 

We were due January 6, that date quickly passed (okay, quick for me, slooooooooowly for Elisabeth), we have a history of big babies in both families (I was over 11 lbs at birth) so the docs were a little concerned our little one could be not-so-little.  So, they scheduled us (us, ha!) to be induced on January 10, at 0-Dark:Thirty in the morning.  

Elisabeth got all the hook ups (wires and drugs) and we were well on our way toward having this little _______ (we didn’t find out the gender).  Well, 26 hours later (and lots of friends wondering why we were the rude parents who never called to tell them what we had on the 10th), the docs finally stopped throwing more bad labor-making drugs into my wife and decided to take the baby out via C-Section.

Without getting gross, the C-Section went fairly well, but afterwards (because of the long labor) it was touch-and-go for Elisabeth, she lost a lot of blood, etc.  Praise God nothing drastic had to be done!

So, back to the product of this C-Section.

The little girl (we were pretty excited to hear/see “it’s a girl”) who was taken from Elisabeth was quickly taken over to the monitoring station (protocol for an emergency C-Section).  She was screaming (nice!  healthy lungs).  I walked over and got my first real glance at this beauty.  With all her might she kept those screams coming… this is until…

“Hello Baby”

With my voice the silence of the room took over.  Her big-eyes opened wide and she looked up at me.  I melted.

A couple hours later and after Elisabeth was able to get her first real long cuddles in, we named her Halle Grace Aaby. 

It’s been seven wonderful years, we are so proud of the way she is developing and so thankful to God for the wonderful gift she is to us, our family, and friends.  Please take the time to pray for Halle today!

Halle is 7!

We look forward to seeing the way God will use her in the future and celebrate the way He has used her to shape us!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Grace,

Brian