Elizabeth Perpetua

JMJ

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter 

Elizabeth Perpetua

Born July 13, 2016 at 2:30 am

8 lb. 12 oz.

21.25 in long

Thank you all for your prayers as we awaited her arrival.  Prayers are always answered and she was worth the wait!  After waiting so long to make her entrance, she decide she wasn't messing around anymore--only four hours of labor and she was here!  

Thanks, also, to our amazing midwife who came out in the middle of the night (something we thought would NEVER happen with a Spiering baby) after being at a birth the night before.  Two days.  Two babies.  No sleep.  How blessed we are to have such an amazing midwife to be on this wild ride with us!  

     St. Elizabeth of Portugal's feast day was July 8th in the old calendar.  She is the niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and was known as the Peacemaker.  Our little one will probably get a nickname like Eliza or Betty, but time will tell what suits her most (we're hoping for Eliza sticks).  We chose Perpetua as a middle name for two reasons: We've tried to name each of our girls after one of the martyrs from the Canon of the Mass.  So, St. Perpetua is one of her patronesses.  We also have a devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  Her feast day was June 27th, the day before our due date, so it seemed fitting to dedicate this little girl to Our Lady in this way.   

We are so very grateful for this beautiful little life joining our family.  Deo Gratias!    

Cecily Rose Spiering

JMJ

On the Feast of All Saints, we were blessed by the birth our lovely daughter, Cecily Rose Spiering.  She was born at 7:41 pm, weighing 9 lb. 14 oz., 23 inches long.  We named her Cecily after St. Cecilia, whose feast day is the 22 of this month.  Rose is for our Lady; we thought she would be born in October, which is the month of the Holy Rosary.  St. Therese's Feast day is at the beginning of October; one of her best known quotes is, "I will spend my time in Heaven doing good on earth. . . . I will send down a shower of roses."  Cecily missed October by one day, but she got something even better: the Feast of All Saints and Angels.  Rose is also after Craig's dear Grandmother Rosie.  She is the sweetest most unassuming woman.  We pray that our little Cecily Rose is blessed with her sweet temperament. 

Thanks to my mother for coming and helping with the other children.  I don't know how we would be getting by without her help.  Also, a huge thanks to Tierney and Lori, the midwives of Marshall Midwifery for assisting at her birth.  They had confidence in me to deliver this baby naturally and at home, even if she was "over due".  The birth was fast and uneventful--meaning nothing went wrong.  "Nothing went wrong" actually means that it went wonderfully!  She was big, but not too big for little me to have naturally.  In fact, she was born with only two pushes and not a tear or stretch!  I give thanks to God for a quickly, healthy delivery and a beautiful, healthy baby girl.

Craig and I were pretty set on this name for a baby girl, but we couldn't decide on a boys name.  As the due date approached, and passed, and the days, then weeks began to pass, each male saint got his chance to have the baby named after him: Sts. Mark, James, Simon, Jude, Crispin, and Blessed Charles of Austria were all saints names we were inclined toward, but none of them answered our prays for the birth of this child.  Now, we see that they knew she was a girl and we didn't; I have to admit that I was a little miffed with those guys :) but now I see that my plans are not God's.