Life since bringing home Levi!

Levi arrived home on Saturday, May 13th!

Life since has consisted of bonding with his sister!

 Spending time with our complete family!

 Giving Levi his first bath... he loves the warm water.

 Cuddling and sleeping (well Levi gets lots of sleep... Drew and I are recalling the exhaustion of a newborn)

 Having FUN as siblings!

 Hanging with Grammy Norton

 Meeting Great Grandma Gerry and Great Grandpa Gus

Levi is doing really well! Last week he was weighing in at 6 pounds 15 ounces. Most of his blood work concerns seem to be stabilizing (his anemia readings on on the rise and his thyroid level seems to be leveling out!). The one concern that still remains is his bilirubin level... it is still high. We did have another ultrasound of the liver though and all looks GOOD! Levi is doing really doing GREAT!

Levi and Naomi are also doing great. Naomi is extremely gentle with him and likes to have him around. We will often give her the option of going places with mom or dad and letting Levi stay home with the other parent. Her common response is to say that she wants everyone to run and errand together. It is sweet to see her embrace Levi. Her favorite thing is to hold Levi's hands... she gets a huge smile when he grips her fingers or tries to suck on her hand.

In other life news... we survived a tornado which tore through North Minneapolis on Sunday, May 22nd. We heard sirens, turned on the news, ran upstairs to get Naomi and as we were running into our basement heard the "freight train" sound and saw our neighbors tree falling towards our house. Within minutes it was over... but now the real clean-up begins.

Our house with our neighbors tree in front of it! We only have minimal damage (a partially broken gutter and two broken screens).

The house and tree directly across the street from us!

These two trees are not only on power lines, but have also landed on the garage of one home located 5 houses up from ours!

This house no longer has a roof. It is located 3-4 blocks behind our house!

This car was demolished in the storm. This photo is only 4-5 blocks from our home!

 

More tornado devastation.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a harder hit home!

We feel very fortunate that the Lord protected our home and family. We really were blocks from being in the center of this storm. The biggest difficulty we have experiences since the storm has been the lack of power. I am writing this blog on Wednesday, May 25th in the evening and we just received word that our power has been restored. We have been staying with our good friends in St. Paul which has been a HUGE blessing! We praise God for good friends, for protection and for mercy in the midst of devastation. We ask God for his help as our neighborhood and community rebuilds. We live in in a low economic area so this disaster has truly created crisis for many who do not have additional resources. Please pray that God will direct us as to how we can be used for His glory in this situation!