Our son has arrived!!!

We are proud to announce the birth of Levi Jonathan Pederson! He arrived yesterday (April 9th) at 6:49pm and weighed 4 pounds 15 ounces and measured 18 inches long! We are so thankful to God for his safe arrival and for God's protection on Levi and Sarah during this birth!

Levi is currently in the NICU. He is healthy, but he still needs some help with his breathing and is on a CPAP machine to help with that. He is being closely monitored and checked for a variety of other things as well, but for a 34 week old baby, he is doing very well.

I have included an excerpt from our February 2nd post below about the names for both of our boys.

We have been praying for these boys and asking for God's presence to be upon all of us and for His purposes for these children of His to be revealed. We rejoice in the truth that God knows all things and loves all people and has a plan for every single one of His kids (no matter how old or young they are). We have a strong sense of peace that we will be joined together with our sons at the time that God intends - with one in this life and with the other when we meet before God's throne in heaven. We invite you to pray with us by name for these boys. We plan to name the pump twin Levi (means "combined" or "joined in harmony") and the acardiac twin Malachi (means "messenger of God" or "My messenger"). We are still negotiating on middle names, but we feel that these names give words to our strong sense that Levi will be joined to our family and that he will also always be joined to his brother. We also have a strong sense that Malachi is already welcome in God's presence and being celebrated in heaven and that his story will be a clear message from God for many, many people.

Levi means "combined or joined in harmony" and Jonathan means "gift from God" (which is what Naomi's middle name means as well).

Malachi means "messenger of God" or "My messenger" and David means "beloved."

We love what these names signify for our sons and our family and for the kingdom of God. We treasure the fact that, in Scripture, Jonathan and David were best friends. We continue to rejoice that Malachi is in God's presence and eagerly anticipate meeting him someday. We also celebrate Levi's birth and his addition to our family and his relationship with each of us and with his brother someday.

We are thankful for God's providence for our sons and our family and so grateful for your prayers and support for us as well. Sarah will post more about her story and we will put more pictures on the blog later today. Thank you for continuing to pray for health and healing and for God's grace and peace and mercy for all of us!

Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)
 "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."