Celebrating The Arrival of #TeamWilliams Newest Member: Sylvia Ann

On October 21^st at 2055 EDT, (8:55PM) our lovely daughter, Sylvia Ann, entered into this world, wide-eyed and alert. She weighed seven pounds two ounces and was nineteen and three-quarters inches long. She is beautiful, and we are so very grateful to finally meet her. Jamie and I are incredibly excited to have her in our lives, and I feel like we have been sharing tears and joyful smiles with this little miracle from the moment we first laid eyes on her.

We are so impressed and grateful for all of the staff at MonGeneral—they have gone above and beyond in every way!l! One of our dear friends, Abby Hills, who is also a nurse on the floor, stopped in to visit us yesterday morning before traveling out of town to celebrate her dad’s birthday, and our midwives (Rhonda Conley and Stephanie Lowe) were incredibly supportive and offered sage wisdom and counsel throughout Jamie’s pregnancy, and they were both patient and encouraging as Jamie moved through the stages of labor.

Our first nurse, Jennifer Bender, stayed with us over two hours extra to make sure we were all set and this little bundle of joy made it out with no problems!!! It meant so much to us to have such strong professional support and encouragement all the way through Jamie’s labor. It was an added bonus to have Jennifer present because she also taught Jamie’s lactation class this summer. Providentially, we had previously met and spent time with the entire team who were walking Jamie and Sylvia through the home stretch. Throughout the time they all brought a superior level of care and encouragement, and they were as excited as we were to find out whether Sylvia was a boy or a girl upon her arrival!!!

And the team who have taken us through our stay have been incredible as well. Kylie, our nurse through the night, has just recently come back to work, and she really did an awesome job coaching Jamie through breast-feeding fundamentals. Sylvia was able to enjoy her first meal from Mom just a few hours into her arrival. And this morning, Nurse Stephanie Smith, took the baton from Kylie and has carried our training to another level. She’s teaching us the ropes around swaddling, using a Boppy pillow, and (for me) how to change a poopy diaper.

This whole journey has been absolutely incredible, and as of my writing of this post, Sylvia has only been outsider her mom’s womb for a few hours. She has been so curious and taking in this whole new world with fresh eyes. She is already teaching me so much!

And Jamie, she is such a warrior! She went through the whole process of labor completely focused and calm. I know a lot of people compare running a marathon to giving birth, but as an outside observer who has done one and will never do the other, the consistent thread between each of them that I have witnessed in Jamie’s life is this. Each of us are capable of far more than we realize, and when I think about Jamie’s labor and delivery (and her first marathon), I feel like I am witnessing a deeper awareness and awakening of all that she is capable of.

And as I pray for my daughter and her journey on this earth, I pray that God will awaken that same deep understanding of what is possible for her, and that He will guide me and Jamie with the wisdom and the discipline to nurture the development those gifts and possibilities.

Jamie and I are overcome by a rich sense of gratitude for this entire journey together, and we are excited for this next chapter of our lives with Sylvia. We are grateful for the prayers and support of so many friends—they have truly sustained us, and we know those prayers are a gift. My first words, before the traditional announcement of, “It’s a girl!” were “She’s beautiful!” I pray that she will always have a deep abiding since of how beautiful and loved she is.

Sylvia is beginning a life that, God willing, will see her grow to be a compassionate servant leader, a faithful steward of resources, and caring and considerate follower of the way of Jesus. We have found ourselves praying often for her to know God and to bring glory to His name, that she would go so much farther than we have in our own faith journeys, and that others would be blessed through the life this she leads. As we continue this journey forward we pray that just as we have prayed over the course of our marriage and relationship, that God would give us the discipline and wisdom we need to steward the gifts He has given. May we all faithfully and graciously walk together in the path that Love has set before us.