Caleb Joseph Reeves May He be bold and faithful for the Lord's glory all the days of His life! Caleb means "bold and faithful". He is such a precious gift from the Lord and we are humbled more than ever by His grace towards us, in giving us another beautiful child. Who are we, Lord, that you would be so loving towards us? God has made us His own children and delights in giving us good gifts. How overwhelming is His goodness and sweetness!

Caleb was born at 11:41 pm on Wednesday, August 23, 2006. He was 7 lbs. 14 ozs. and 19.5 inches long. He has very intense, alert eyes and has been examining everything around him from his first moments after birth!

My (Becky's) labor was induced at 4pm on Wednesday. The doctor broke my water when I was about 4 centimeters dialated. Approximately 2 gallons of fluid rushed out and was met with incredulous responses by both the doctor and nurse. Dave said my tummy visibly deflated as the water poured out! The doctor did an exam and felt Caleb's head and hand engaged in the birth canal. The following few minutes were some of the post painful as the doctor reached in and did his best to push Caleb's head back and maneuver his hand out of the birth canal. He eventually succeeded and I endured contractions with only 1 minute breaks in between until 10:30pm when I asked for an epidural. I had the shakes so bad at that point that it was very difficult to hold still for the epidural to be put in. I've never had any kind of drugs in my other three childrens' births so I was a bit wary. But after talking with the nurse she felt my labor would probably progress faster with the pitocin if I couldn't feel as much pain. She was right and I went from 5 centimeters dialated at 10:30pm to being a full 10 centimeters dialated by 11:30pm! I could still feel some pain and the urge to push and after 4 or 5 tries at pushing, Caleb was born! He was healthy, nursed hard and well right away and had no problems. I was so very humbled by God's grace to me in this that I had trouble not crying almost constantly the first couple of days home from the hospital. My sister, Sarah, had come around the time I got the epidural to bring some things from home we forgot and said she would like to stay until Caleb was born, so we said she was welcome to stay and watch the birth. It was special to have her there and she said it was neat to see a birth from an observer's perspective versus being the one who is actually giving birth. I've never seen it from the other side either!

Hannah, Gabe, and especially Elijah are enamoured with their new little brother. "Baby Caleb is so cute!" is the popular phrase coming from each of their mouths over the last 5 days. Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Great Grammy, and Aunt Sarah, Uncle Tim, and Andrew all have similar reactions and have enjoyed holding and cuddling him! Elijah is always wanting to hold him and will hold him for long periods of time, talking to him and smiling at him. He's always wanting to help and is precious with his adoring love for his little brother.

We are blessed and praise the Lord for sweet little Caleb Joseph!