A Light to light up the whole world...

‎"I've come to bring you happy news for everyone everywhere. Today, in David's town,in Bethlehem, God's Son has been born!. They had heard about this Promised Child and now he was here. Heaven's Son. This baby would be like that bright star shining in the sky that night. A Light to light up the whole world. Chasing away darkness. Helping people to see. And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine." - The Jesus Storybook Bible

We pray you experience a very joyful Christmas as we celebrate the birth of God's Own Son!

Love,

Thang, Katie, Nora and Silas

Welcoming Silas

As many of you probably already know, we welcomed our sweet little boy into the world a week ago Saturday! Silas Ray Vinh Tran was born at 2:26 pm on December 11th, weighing in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long.

He surprised us like his sister by coming early. Nora had come 9 days early, so I was expecting him to make his entrance around the 15th or 16th, but little Silas was even more eager than his big sis and came 13 days early (due date was Christmas Eve)!

Many have asked about his name. "Silas" has always been Thang's favorite boy's name, since before we were even married and I quickly fell in love with it. The name comes from the book of Acts in the Bible, Silas was one of Paul's missionary partners. It means "of the forest". Based on his name, we are specifically praying Psalm 1 for our boy...

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

"Ray" is a family name. My grandpa's name was Raymond , but went by Ray and my dad's middle name is Ray. I wanted to pass this name along since my dad didn't have a male heir to pass on the Faust name. It took a little convincing for Thang as he thought "Silas Ray" might sound a little too close to the name of a certain "achy-breaky" country singer. However, I think Silas Ray would make a good name for a Blues guitarist...

"Vinh" is Vietnamese and means "glory". If we have more boys, this will also be their middle name. In the Vietnamese culture, all the boys of a certain generation have the same middle name, so the pressure was on to pick a good name since we were not just choosing it for this child!

We are loving our little boy, and, honestly right now he is making it pretty easy on us by still sleeping about 23 hours a day. His timing turned out to be pretty perfect as Thang was able to take a week off when he was born and he now has 2 weeks of Christmas vacation...giving us 3 full weeks together! I may just get too used to this!

Enjoy a few pictures from the last 10 days...

What a blessing it is this Christmas to celebrate the birth of our Savior while holding our own little boy in our arms!

37 Weeks: The Ludicrous Stage

Now less than 20 days until my due date and, Lord willing, less than that 'til our Little Man arrives. I am now calling this stage of pregnancy the "Ludicrous Stage"

... as in my belly is so ludicrously large, it's hard keeping it covered even in my largest maternity clothes.

...as in my feet and ankles are so ludicrously swollen even my Birkenstocks and house slippers are tight. Some days it's not even worth leaving the house knowing I'll have to squeeze my feet into something!

...as in my hands and wrists are so ludicrously swollen I haven't worn my wedding ring for a month and my hands are slightly numb as I type!

Thang also recently told me that he's had visions of our tiny, newborn son with long, wavy tresses down his back...and I'm starting to believe it considering the heartburn I've had throughout this pregnancy.

Ahhhh, if I didn't keep laughing about it, I might just cry. : )

Despite all these pregnancy symptoms, baby and mama are quite healthy, my blood pressure is normal and my belly is actually measuring right on now (it was measuring quite large earlier in the pregnancy and there were some concerns that something could be wrong with the babe). Don't get me wrong, I am SO, SO THANKFUL for this child and for a pretty uncomplicated pregnancy, just already identifying with Romans 8:22. I recently remembered being at this stage with Nora and telling Thang I would be ok with adopting our next child...then not less than a week after Nora was born trying to figure out when we could get pregnant again!

Nora had to get in on the action.

Nora's belly pic. : )

I have also been trying to get myself psyched up for birth. We had a really wonderful, peaceful, unmedicated birth with Nora (thank you Lord for jacuzzis!) and I am praying for another great experience. For some reason though, I am feeling a bit more apprehensive this time around...maybe because I know what to expect? But, I keep reminding myself that God made my body for this and how when I went into labor with Nora I was in this "zone" where I just knew I had a job to do and I needed to let my body do it.

I've been watching some Youtube videos of births and came across this video. A friend sent this to me when I was pregnant with Nora and I find it so inspiring. The lady has 2 strong contractions during the duration of this song!!!

If only I had such a voice!

We'll keep you all updated on this Little Man's arrival...my prediction is around the 16th or 17th...yikes, that's less than 2 weeks!!!