Here is a letter I wrote to my college girlfriends the morning after Gabe's birth....
Hey Girls!
Just wanted to send you all a few pictures this
morning of our sweet gift, Gabriel Oakes Shapiro! He weighs 7 lbs and 5
ounces, is 19 inches long, and is such a sweet snuggler. I'm so glad to
be on the other side of surgery, and to get to have some moments with Jeremy
and with Gabe to get to know this little, sleepy one. He's eating good
now, though he will go for his circumcision in a bit and they expect he won't
be hungry afterwards, and he does have a heart murmur that they are watching,
but he's doing great over all! I had a rough day yesterday because my
spinal block started wearing off during surgery--i could literally wiggle my
toes before I left the OR and by the time we got to recovery I could already
lift my legs, so needless to say I felt way too much of what was going on and
that was not only really scary for me, it also made it hard to curb the pain
afterwards since we were so far behind it. I feel a lot better today and
already have my IV out and my catheter is gone too, which means i'll be walking
to the bathroom and maybe will be able to eat soon. I'm grateful we are
all okay! Thanks so much for your prayers!
Y'all know us well enough to know we have a hard
time naming our babies, but now we feel good about calling our littlest dude
Gabe. He stirred so much anxiety in me from the very beginning of
pregnancy and as days passed I found it hard to trust that God could possibly
give us another undeserved healthy baby. Jeremy and I both had names we
liked, but none of them matched except for Gabe. One day while I was
working on preparing a place for him in our crazy house, I heard a song that I
had never heard before--a Christmas song that had a young boy reading a sweet version
of the annunciation, which went something like this:
“Mary, you’re going to have a baby! A little
boy! You will call him Jesus.” (Wait. God was sending a baby
to rescue the world?) “But it’s too wonderful,” Mary said. “How
could it be true?” “IS ANYTHING TOO WONDERFUL FOR GOD?” Gabriel said.
So Mary trusted God
with more than what her eyes could see.
I realize more and more that I fail to trust God
with my heart, and both Jeremy and I believe that Gabe does have some sweet
things to remind us about the wonder of who God is. Gabriel means
"God is my strength" so as we hope that for him, we feel so blessed
to get to know that better in our own lives as we journey with our youngest
little guy.
Oakes was Jeremy's mom's maiden name. No one
has much good to say about her dad, so it felt like a less than honorable
namesake to me until Jeremy reminded me that God is about redemption in our
lives, and that he wouldn't be the person he is if that were not true.
Isaiah 61:2 says,
"They will be called Oaks of righteousness, a
planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor." So, we're
hoping for God's continued redemption in the lives of our children and are
reminded of the sweet grace of claiming that gift in our own lives as we pray
that baby Gabe will be righteous in God's eyes through Christ.
Isaac told us we could call his brother Gabe but
that he was going to call him Michael. Ada wants to call him Bo Basket,
so I guess he's headed for some special nicknames. The kids did great meeting
him yesterday, and we are excited about their visit again today! Can't
wait to share him with each of you as well. Again, we are so grateful for
your prayers, and for the gift each of you are to our family! God reminds
us of His faithfulness through you all!
Much love,
Erika and
Jeremy, Isaac, Ada, and baby Gabe
