Noah is here!!!

On January 31st, 2007 at 5:30pm, weighing in at Six pounds Fifteen ounces and Twenty inches long, Kelly happily delivered baby Noah Daniel and introduced him to this world. It was the most amazing experience of my life. It was probably one of the craziest experiences of my life also, but it was wonderful. All together, by the time we got to the hospital to the time she delivered, only 4 1/2 hours had progressed. Though we didn't hit any traffic, the car ride there was probably Kelly's most difficult since the contractions were only three minutes a part with no real breaks. After her water broke at the house, it was a made rush for Noah to get out. Hopefully, by the end of this week, we will have some pictures up on the website of little Noah and the newly numbered Parkins family.

Kelly really did wonderfully and since Noah's arrival, has been a spectacular mother. I praise God, thinking back just three weeks ago about where I was at, and now visibly seeing God's love and provision manifested in our lives through all of you and now, through the little man God gave us charge over. He has a full head of blond hair with blond eyebrows and eyelashes, blue eyes as far as we can tell, and looks a lot like Kelly (very fortunate for that indeed!). He took to breastfeeding right away which was wonderful, and even fell asleep in my arms today as I was able to visit for a few brief hours.

This is a tough time for me as all I want to do is be there for my wife, but the doctors and everyone involved seem to think that my rest would be the best love I could show. Pray that I can submit to this! By the way, the new liver is still doing well; my bilirubin count (the amount of bile in my blood due to a diseased liver) is down from 42 three weeks ago to 4.1 today. Even the doctors are excited about what is happening.

My love to all who read these words,

Daniel Parkins

And sorry to my close friends who I wasn't able to call...these past two days have been hard on me physically!