A Present for Evelyn

Our family is in Grand Rapids, Michigan this weekend visiting my daughter Rachel, her husband Kyle and my granddaughter Evelyn, who turns one today.

Evelyn got to open one of her presents Saturday night when we arrived, as she sat in the lap of her Aunt Rebekah. This is one of those priceless moments that’s a great reason to have a Flip video camera (or something like it):

Because we won’t know the baby’s gender for at least several months, we’re thinking we will refer to him/her as “Thermie” for short.

If I would have know what the news was going to be, I would have been focusing more on Bekah than on Evelyn.

This is another example of how you can embed video from Facebook in a self-hosted WordPress blog, whereas you can’t in a WordPress.com blog.

Meanwhile, here’s the video we shot a year ago right now, when we welcomed Evelyn to the world. She’s changed quite a bit:

Lisa and I have been truly blessed, and are looking forward to Evelyn having a sibling and to becoming serial grandparents.

A Tale of Two Pregnancies

On Friday I got some delightful news from my oldest daughter, Rachel. My previously unknown grandchild now has both an identified gender and a name, thanks to the medical advances of ultrasound. Meet Evelyn Grace Borg, who is scheduled to make her appearance on the seventh anniversary of 9/11. (Her aunts, whose birthdays are 8/31 and 9/14 are hoping she’s a birthday present for them instead.)

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7749271792776786660&hl=en]

The news from Rachel and Kyle made this story from yesterday’s Star Tribune all the more poignant for me personally. It’s an example of how a blog begun in advance of a tragedy has helped to bring comfort and support to Matt, Madeline and their family. After reading their story, I’m praying for them, and a little bit harder for Rachel, Kyle and Evelyn, too.