A New Addition

It's been far too long since we've had our new addition and haven't introduced her to the world via blog, although most of you have already seen her on facebook. Our new baby girl here is Marici Rath, born 18 May 2010 at around 11:30am, weighing in at a 7lbs2oz and a height of 19 inches, our shortest, fattest baby thus far. She's grown up quite beautifully over the last 5 months now, and we can hardly believe that it has already been that long.

We named her Marici, which is Sanskrit for stars, following our Kiran, Oriya for rays of sunshine, and Nisha, Oriya for moonlight. Joram's first name is Jagadish, Hindi for Lord of the Universe, so with all of them together we have, as Joram always says, the entire outer space.

The kids all love having a baby sister, although when we first told them we were having a girl Joram said, "Awww, can we have another one and make it a boy?" The girls are both extremely fond of her, especially Nisha, who gets her out of bed and changes her diapers nearly every morning.

Marici already has a giggle and a smile that lights up the room, and we love to make her laugh. She has been a wonderful change to our otherwise hum-drum lives, and we look forward to seeing her grow and mature like the her siblings.

Renewing my love for the Book of Mormon

My family will be watching this video this evening for FHE, and I would ask every one of you to do the same. My son, Joram, just turned 8 and will be getting baptized soon. It is essential that we give our children every opportunity to read and understand the scriptures so that they can develop a testimony of their own as to the truthfulness of the gospel. It truly warms my heart when I hear one of my kids share their love of the scriptures, the Church, and their Savior Jesus Christ. I know that God lives, and that Jesus is the Christ. This is Their Church and Their Work we do. Please enjoy the video.

How the time has passed...

It certainly has been a while since I last wrote. I guess life happens and you don't write on your blog for almost half a year. Not too much has changed in the last few months, except that by now many of you know that we are expecting our fourth baby, yet another girl. Joram and I are already outnumbered 3-2, but soon we'll be completely overrun. We're excited for the new addition, due May 31, though the girls were definitely more excited than Joram was. When we finally told them we were expecting (we didn't tell them until about 6 months in) the girls whooped and hollered, and Joram just said, aw man, another girl? Notwithstanding, he's still very anxious to meet his new sister, though he wants to have a baby brother next.

Joram is becoming quite a young chess master, taking 2nd place in a recent tournament, and qualifying for the state competition this upcoming weekend. The tournament is both Saturday and Sunday, and he is willingly taking byes for all three rounds on Sunday because he wants to keep the Sabbath holy, even though he knows it will severely limit his chances at placing. His mother and I very proud of his decision. He also recently turned eight and looks forward to his baptism. I'll post on here when it will be in case anyone wants to join us for this occasion.

Kiran is just about reading now, and is excited to go to school next school year. Nisha is thrilled to have a real, live baby to play with, not just her fake baby dolls. They both pretend to have schoolwork like their big brother and business like their mommy and daddy. Kids grow up way too fast. There's our update for now. Hopefully it won't be this long the next time. Until then...