Baby Eli

Twelve years ago, God gave Steve and me the most wonderful gift--a healthy baby boy. 

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Here are a couple of horrifying pictures of how huge I was at the end of my pregnancy:

Getting ready to meet Eli

Here's Daddy with his baby boy

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And here's Eli's first official portrait--Look at that face!

This next picture is Eli in his "going home" outfit.  A friend had given us this adorable outfit, thinking that we'd have a normal sized baby.  Well, Eli came out at a whopping 10 lbs. 1 oz., and I practically had to shoehorn him into these clothes!  Getting the picture was tough--the hat kept popping off of him because it was too small!

Here are a couple of shots of one tired mama & her precious boy (note: these are pictures of a pre-Lasik me!)

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Here is the birth announcement that we sent out.  I'm including it here because I bought those announcements BEFORE we knew if Eli was a healthy baby (you can read the story of our daughter, Abigail, who passed away in 1995 here).  It was a real "Peter stepping out of the boat" moment of faith for me, since we didn't know if Eli was okay or not.

Here he was at 3 months old---how my current skinny boy came from this little chunk of love, I'll never know!

Happy 12th birthday, Eli!  We love you so much!