Sweet Sophie

Sorry for the delay about the pictures that my friend, Erin, took last week. They turned out to be SO cute! Much to my chagrin, however, little Sophie didn't want to sleep, so Erin suggested coming back again to try to get those sleeping baby pics that I wanted so much. I felt so silly going back, but I'm really glad I did, because they are adorable!! Erin is SO creative with her photography and I love all of the pictures she got of our family.

Go here to see the pictures from last week's photo shoot. The event code is: Sophia
Go here to see the additional photos that Erin took of her yesterday.

Thank you, Erin, for being so willing to have me back to get those shots! You're the best!

Pictures

I was telling Matt the other day that I just don't feel like any of the pictures we have taken show how cute Sophia really is. What's the saying? "They don't give her justice." Something like that. Niner.

Anyway, I'm hoping today will change all of that and I'll get to show you some stinkin' cute pictures of sweet Sophie. A good friend of ours, Erin, is a photographer and she's going to do a shoot with our little girl in a few hours. I'm SOOO excited! Erin is great and her pictures always turn out so adorable! (Check out her photos and art work here.) I just hope Sophie cooperates so that we can get those adorable naked sleeping baby pics.

Until then, here are some more pictures of our little Sophie taken by Matt and myself.

The classic "sleeping on daddy's chest" picture.

Snoozing with her arms stretched above her head. I totally do that when I'm conked out.

Her froggie outfit. The feet are little frog faces. So cute.

A proud dad

It is fitting that my first post on our blog occurs after the birth of our first-born child, Sophia Grace. I didn't plan for it to occur at this time, but I'm joyful it has.

We named her Sophia, which means "wisdom" in Greek, as our hearts were won over by wisdom literature in the Old Testament. Wisdom and Folly are personified in the book of Proverbs, both calling out in the sixth chapter, "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" Both "women" have something to give to those who respond to their calls, yet the delights and eventual path of the partakers are vastly different. Wisdom leads to life; the path of Folly leads to death.

In Proverbs 8:35-36, wisdom says "For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself: all who hate me love death."

All who hate wisdom love death!

When God redeemed my life in 2001, I was in great need of wisdom. I still am. I had some friends from college who were attending Greentree Community Church and I started going with them. I was blessed to join the church and a community of believers who invested in me and took a lot of their time and energy to help me grow in my faith and wisdom. Amidst many blunders on my part as others were compassionate, faithful, and gentle in their correction and guidance, my heart was drawn to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. I am in debt to many of you who read this post.

I rejoiced as I read Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, etc., gaining practical wisdom and insight. It became far easier for me to make decisions in life, obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, and know that my life had intention and direction. I try to read a chapter of Proverbs every morning. The thirty-one chapters match well with the typical thirty or thirty-one days in a month.

The name Sophia won our hearts as we began praying for her and journaling to her long before she was born.

I pray that Sophia grows to know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I pray that Sophia's life is marked by wisdom, that she makes decisions in obedience to the Lord.
I pray that she is a blessing to others, living in such a way that others are drawn or called to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, the risen Lord.

We decided to give her the middle name "Grace" because we thought it sounded beautiful with "Sophia" and it reminds us, and hopefully her someday, of the undeserved, yet freely given, mercy we have received from God, our Father. I was a little slow in accepting the name because we have very dear friends, who we consider family, whose recently adopted daughter was given the name Grace when she came into the family. Anyway, this past week I grew to treasure the name. Great timing, right?




Baby girl and daddy's hand.


My wife has been an amazing mom to our little girl. I am so proud to be her husband. The Lord has richly blessed me.

Meet Sophia

Sophia Grace Schaefer is here! She decided to make her grand entrance on Friday, September 5th at 11:34pm. I worked the entire day at school in labor, but was convinced that it wasn't "real." I was so sure that I was going to deliver after my due date, that I just figured I was having pre-term contractions or "false labor." I wasn't even really sure what a contraction was going to feel like, so the achy cramping didn't convince me, either. We decided to head to the hospital around 7:30 so they could put the monitor on me to see if they were really contractions. I still wasn't so sure, but when they told me I was 4cm dialated I decided to believe them. Three hours later, Sophia was born. The delivery went extremely well and I loved the experience of natural delivery.

Here are some long-awaited pictures of our precious little girl.

This was taken right before we went into our triage room so they could see how far along I was. The nurse was hilarious and made us take a picture "belly-to-belly."

Our first family picture! This was taken right after her birth. They never even made me change clothes. No IV either. Crazy! I am SO thankful I got to avoid ALL possible needles. Such an answer to prayer!


Our healthy baby girl weighed in at 7lbs 3.6oz (which they rounded up to 7lb 4oz) with a FULL head of beautiful hair!


After her first "shower." Check out that hair-do! Wild woman!


Her hands are always at her face.

Her first picture with Grandma T! My mom was of my three AMAZING coaches during labor and delivery, along with Matt and our nurse. Thanks, Mom!


Her first picture with Grandma G, Matt's mom!


All cleaned up and sleepy.

First picture with Grandpa T!



Here is a picture of her with Grandpa S at our house!


My best friend from college, Lauren, with our little one.


Thank you to everyone who has joined us in prayer and celebration! We couldn't have done it without you!

10 days?

Is it really September 1st? We are getting so close to our due date, and it still seems surreal. I keep telling myself that I could deliver "any day now," but I don't know if I truly believe that. Pregnancy has been such an easy journey for me, that I kind of feel like it's just how life will be from now on. I'll just stay pregnant forever. But September is really here, and we're only 10 days away from our due date.

At last week's appointment I was measuring at 35 cm., when I should have been at 38cm. My doctor said she wasn't too concerned, because the baby had dropped so far down into my pelvis that she didn't think she was getting an accurate measurement. For precautionary measures, she requested that I have another ultrasound. So on Friday we went in to see how big our little girl really is. In the two days of waiting I guess I was getting a little concerned that there was a problem, but didn't get too worked up over it. Everything measured just fine, though. She was approximately 6 lbs 10 oz. So she probably won't make it to the 7 lb mark, but she's healthy. And I'm thankful to give birth to a small baby, because I'd really like to try to go naturally!
So, that's all the news in our baby world. Here are some pictures taken at 38 weeks.

Looking a little tired after a long day of work!

The picture above just makes me a little sad. I definitely puffed up over the course of this pregnancy. I always thought I'd be one of those women who could keep up with a good workout schedule and stay fit through pregnancy. Yeah...that didn't so much happen. (Compare with the next picture taken back in January when I was barely pregnant.) Yeah, yeah...I know my stomach is supposed to get bigger, but pretty much ALL of me did, too! The problem is the only exercise I really enjoy is running, and I obviously haven't been able to do that. I truly am anxious to get back into it and get back into shape!

Another tummy picture. Yes, I still fit into my t-shirts from college...they're strechy! And the next pic is my bare tummy. I finally got brave enough to post one.