First night

Tonight was the first night home for our new baby, Johanna. William and Evie were very excited to see her. They've been waiting for months, and asking for the past few days/weeks when she's going to finally arrive.

So after church, I loaded William and Evie into our new green minivan, and we drove through the city to the hospital. As we pulled around the parking ramp to the patient pick-up spot, Mirjam, the baby, and the nurse stepped outside into the bitter cold. I kept the engine running, quickly loaded Mama and Baby into the car, and we started our trip home.

Late that night, after Mirjam and I had put William and Evie to bed, we were sitting on the couch, trying to get Johanna to stop crying and fall asleep. From behind us, we heard the kids' door open -- I was about to stand up and send whomever it was straight back to bed.

But when we turned around, we saw a squinty-eyed William quietly but quickly scooting across the carpet on the red PlasmaCar that aunt Karen gave the kids for Christmas, pushing every few feet with his two legs stroking in tandem. He had heard his new baby sister crying, and he wanted to come see her and help her.

We let him say hello and good night, and give her a kiss, and he scooted back into his bedroom on the red plastic car, closed the door behind him, and climbed back up into his bunk bed again.