Samuel, cont.

Here I’ve posed Samuel next to a Penguin Classic to show his size. (See his arms flail.)

We brought him home on Friday. Since then, he’s been to church, where the congregants queued up to greet him; to Wendy’s, where he insisted on being fed in the parking lot; to a house that my parents are thinking of buying; and to my grandparents’ house.

There are many other photos I could show, but I’ll just offer two in which Samuel is acknowledged by the kitties, who seem enormous. Little Ziva looks like a horse.

This wasn’t their first encounter with Samuel. Upon first meeting him, Jasper sniffed once and then bolted under the bed. Ziva quickly followed.

Samuel operates on Tokyo time. He sleeps most of the day and wails most of the night. His wail isn’t WAAH, WAAH so much as uh-LAAH, uh-LAAH.

… and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD

Would you like to see photos of our new son?

From yesterday:

From today:

The previous photo highlights my own traits, I think. Most of the time, the boy looks more like Karin (and especially Karin’s dad).

His name is Samuel David.

We’ve been attended, excellently, by about two dozen nurses and doctors, and received ten different visitors (several, more than once). Our little room has been the site of considerable traffic.

I brought fifteen books to the hospital. My goal is to finish reading the shortest one, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (140 pp.), by Heinrich Böll. I don’t think I’ll meet it: we expect to leave the hospital tomorrow.

Karin also has a goal, which is to feed Samuel, from the breast, every two or three hours. This is an even greater challenge. His tongue is tethered, and he reclines only in certain positions due to a fracture of his clavicle. Throughout his first night, he spat out phlegm. Already, life is hard for him – and he’s reasonably healthy.

Is it good to bring a new person into existence? I’ve often wondered. Hannah, in I Samuel, had her reasons, and Karin & I have ours. What we agree on is that this child is from, and for, the LORD.