WHAT A SHOCKER!!

O.K., so here's the deal...we were so shocked that this baby is a girl. I had her in the birthing pool and couldn't really bring her up all the way to look at what sex she was because of the umbilical cord. I felt down there on the baby though and it was flat. I was like "What the heck?! Oh my gosh!" :) It was so funny. So fun though...I do love surprises.

Even though I never claimed to know for sure, with Grady I was 99% sure it was a boy...he is a boy. With Hadley, same thing. So funny that I was so shocked like that.

The good news is that now...here at 12:45 PM on Wednesday...she is over 24 hours old...we FINALLY have a name. Are you ready? Drum roll please...

ASA ROSE EBERSOLE!!

Yes, her name is Asa, the first A pronounced with a long "a" sound, the s pronounced with a strong "s" sound (like in sun, not a "z" sound). We are super excited and even though this name wasn't even on our name list for a girl, we love it and feel like it is definitely from the Lord. I'll write more on the name at another point. Rose, by the way, is a family name. Joel's mom's family is the only side of our families that hasn't been included in our children's names yet. It was their turn. So, even though I have an aunt named Rose also, and a great friend named Rose,...and Joel's sister's middle name is Rose, it really is after Joel's mom's sister, Rose. She is single and doesn't have kids of her own, so she has always been very special to Joel and his brothers and sisters. She even lived with them for a time in Brazil.

Anyhow, off to take care of Asa. And also, if you are interested in hearing about it, I will be posting the birth story in a few days too. It's a great story.

Oh, and one more thing...the kids are loving having a baby in the house. They don't seem to be acting any differently. Yesterday was fun. First of all, we've been preparing the kids for this time. We told them that when the baby decides to come, they were going to go over to Sarah's house and play and then Granny would pick them up and bring them over here. Yesterday morning, John (Graves...Sarah's dad) came over to get the kids. We woke them up and Grady saw him and immediately brightened, Joel told him he was going over to Sarah's house. Grady started asking Joel, "Baby?! Baby?!" He was so excited. It was fun...last night Mama came over from Louisiana and picked the kids up and brought them over here to our house. We had Asa back in our room. The kids came in looking for her and were also excited about Granny being here. We talked to the kids a little bit. I showed them my belly and how there wasn't a baby in there anymore. Grady said, "Baby come out?" I told him the baby came out. Joel brought the baby in and they were super excited, yelling "baby, baby" over and over. We got some great shots of them...you can see the pictures on our website.

By the way, if you haven't gotten an email from me about it yet, you need to check that out...our website: www.ebersoleonline.com.