Emma Faith Tinklepaugh
Born 5 July, 4:49pm
7lbs, 8oz, 18 1/2 inches
The passage God gave me for Emma is 2 Corinthians 2: “The Mind of Christ.” We sense God shall bless her with a strong mind and is strengthening our minds to serve Him and love Him more.
WOW….the past two weeks have been so incredibly full…I could really write pages and pages to tell you how MUCH God has done for us. But, for now, I want to introduce you to our newest little addition to the Tinklepaugh Flock–Emma Faith Tinklepaugh!!! It was a great leap of faith to embark on adding another blessing to our family, and a great test of faith during my pregnancy with her…she arrived in such an incredibly beautiful way…and is the most lovely, peaceful baby we could have ever asked for…we are in complete AWE and totally in LOVE!!! The kids are smitten over her and have been such sweet and helpful siblings…they have already taken over as her protector and make sure mommy is taking very good care of her. Lewis still tells me often, “mommy, I have waited for EmmaLew my whole life and she is finally here.” Hannah tells me each morning, as if in complete amazement, “mommy, Emma’s not in your belly anymore!!!” We are in a baby honeymoon and simply loving it.
Emma is the most amazing baby and is a testimony of God’s love and faithfulness to us. She was born at 38 1/2 weeks, completely healthy…and down to the finest detail, the most easy baby I could imagine. She rarely cries, has the softest, sweetest little cry when she does, is eating wonderfully, caught up to and well-surpassed her birth weight within days of delivery, never spits up, and is already waking just twice during the night. For those of you who know our story with Lewis and Hannah, THIS is God’s great grace and mercy to our family!!! We are so thankful and aware of His hand of grace in her life and ours.
Here is Emma’s beautiful story of Faith upon entrance into this world:
My water broke at 0730 4 July and contractions began soon afterward…we headed off to the hospital (an hour away) after dropping the kids off at our sweet neighbor, Angela’s house. After arriving, my contractions were 6 minutes apart. I was hooked up to my iv (group b strep) and despite intermittent monitoring and walking around the hospital, things began to slow down and I labored for 24 hours. The doctors were gracious to let me labor past 12 hours to the 24th hour, but at that point, we all decided to start pitocin. After 8 hours of pitocin, labor wasn’t progressing, Brian and I looked at each other, and I whispered to him, “Brian, the necessity of a c-section is beginning to cross my mind at this point.” He told me the same thought just crossed his mind. We prayed for God’s mercy and presence over us, no matter what the outcome. I sent Brian off for some jolly ranchers, because I was starving :-), and within minutes of him leaving, I had a HUGE contraction…like those toward the end of my labor with Lew….I decided two things…1) I’ll wait for one more contraction to see if that was for real and 2) If it is for real, I’m asking for an epidural!!! It was for real, and they gave me an epidural 🙂 After the epidural, the doctor and nurses rushed around quickly, as I got sick twice and told them Emma was coming quickly 🙂 I told the doctor to please turn around because I was certain she was here, and she did and Emma arrived! Emma was born after 3 pushes…what a sweet miracle and answer to prayers for mercy.
I am excited to tell you more of this story, more of the details, the preparation that God gave me for her birth, the comfort during, the OVERFLOW of provision afterward…there is SO much to tell and I cannot wait to write about it! My heart is SO FULL….He is SOOO FAITHFUL!!!!
Walking in Faith 