Timing

God's timing over the past two months has been amazingly and overwhelmingly evident in our lives.  Nate and I were surprised when Penn was born at 35 weeks, worried when he had to be readmitted to the hospital at 17 days old, and thankful for each family member who was here to help at the perfect time.  

Leading up to Penn's birth, I was planning and juggling the different schedules of each of the visitors who would be coming to help us after Penn's birth.  Throughout the planning process, we made plane tickets and planned the schedule all without a clue as to when Penn would be joining us.  I would say to my family, "I don't know when Penn's going to be coming, as long as you're willing to go with the flow, we would love to have you with us." 

I couldn't be more thankful because over the last nine weeks, we've had 8 weeks of visitors.  Every single plane ticket was purchased before Penn's birth, and every person came at the right time. 

   Debbie decided to fly out during the last weeks of my pregnancy to help me get ready for Penn, not knowing that it would be the exact week to the day that Nate had to go back to work after Penn's birth.

My dad had a business conference scheduled in Houston that he learned about only a month before the trip.  It ended up being the exact time that I would be without help for three days between visits from other family members.

My mom's plane landed the day before Penn was readmitted to the hospital.  Needless to say, it lifted a huge weight off my shoulder because I didn't need to worry about Sammy while Nate and I stayed at the hospital with Penn (at a time when Nate had to run the ENT service during a trauma week--busy to say the least). 

Due to other family illness, we were unable to go see Mamagrande during the initially planned time, which caused us to choose an alternate weekend, thus allowing Nate to join us on our trip to see Mamagrande.  We were able to get the four generations together:  Mamagrande, Papa Joe, Nathan, Sammy and Penn.

  

Serge was TDY to San Angelo, Tx from England!  This assignment allowed Serge to visit and forced Bethany to hang out with us.  This was extra special because we don't get to see them very much, and Bethany was able to meet Penn, too. (***on a side note, Bethany, the use of the word "forced" was chosen by Nathan not me. ;-) )

Before Penn's birth, I knew we would have 8 straight weeks of family in town but I really didn't know when Penn would be born within those eight weeks.  He ended up coming exactly one week before our first guest.  Nate and I were able to enjoy our new, expanded family during his paternity leave week. Then every single person arrived here at the exact time that was perfect for us, them and Penn.  God's timing is perfect and so much better than ours!

 And now it's just us again :)