We had a lot of visitors during our stay in the hospital after Ella arrived. We loved sharing our little bundle with everyone! Here are pictures of a few of our visitors. (I’m sorry if you came and we didn’t get a picture!)
Westin & Jessica
It’s finally time for an update! I apologize for not updating sooner, but things have been a bit on the busy side for our little family.
Ella is now 17 days old. The time is already going so quickly! We’re completely in love with our little girl and all the things she does. I don’t even know how many pictures we’ve taken already. A lot. We’ll post them very soon.
When Ella was just 6 days old we made our big move to Minneapolis. Fortunately, we were able to hire movers to pick up our boxes and drop them off at the new place. We’re still living out of those boxes. Soon enough we’ll be out of them. It’s just that we’d much rather spend time with Ella than unpack. We enjoy our new place very much. It’s just a block from the Mississippi River, which provides great walking paths. We’re surrounded by little shops and cafes and are just a block from the U of MN campus. We can actually see the new Gopher stadium from our front window! They’ll be lots of fun outtings coming up.
Like I mentioned, I’ll get the new pictures posted as soon as I find a few extra minutes. They’ll include highlights of our stay in the hospital, visitors, the first days at home, Mommy & Daddy’s anniversary (a picnic in Stillwater!), and many other firsts. Check back soon!
We are beyond excited to finally announce the arrival of our little girl Ella Kristin Rehema Olsen. Ella was born on Thursday, June 25 at 6:25am at the Owatonna Hospital. She weighed 8lbs 11 oz (a surprise to us all!) and was 21 inches long. The three of us came home from the hospital today and are settling in to life with a new born. It’s amazing to watch all of the incredible things she does that absolutely melt our hearts.
What’s in a name?
The name Ella came from Ang’s adopted grandma when she was younger. “Grandma Ella” was a resident of the nursing home where Ang’s mom was working. Ang’s family spent years visiting her, taking her to piano recitals, bringing her baskets of kitties and puppies to play with, and listening to her stories of growing up on a farm in the early 1900s. Grandma Ella lived to be just six months shy of her 100 birthday and had a love for her family (all passed away before she did) and had a strong faith in Jesus.
The name Kristin comes from two very special people, both of whom are sure to have a loving influence on Ella in the years to come. Kristin is Ang’s mom’s name as well as Pete’s sister’s name. Pete’s sister is also Ella’s godmother.
Rehema also carries great significance. It is the Swahili word for Mercy. It is a reminder of the calling that God has put on our family, no matter where He leads us. He has designed each member of our family, as well as our family as a whole, to specific purposes. We are excited to see Ella grow in God’s love and to discover His purpose for her life in the years to come.
Still no big announcement to make! We’ve been passing the time packing and mostly staying in the house since we do have air conditioning. (That’s a great thing since public radio said that the heat index in Owatonna was 112 today.) We did get to play tennis two nights ago and have gone on numerous walks to help move things in the right direction.
We’ll pass on news as soon as things start to happen!
We decided to have some fun on our due date to help pass the time. A few of these are random things that many people say will bring on labor while others are just events that happened through the day.
Pineapple (although it’s supposed to be fresh)
It’s funny how often that song is running through my head these days. We’re very ready to go whenever the time does come to make the trek to the hospital. I took two walks yesterday to see if that would help, but still no movement. We’re enjoying passing the time, though. I’m slowly packing a couple moving boxes but mostly just doing things that I can do from my comfy sitting position on the couch. One thing that’s helping is to set something fun each day if the baby isn’t here yet. Yesterday it was ice cream at a new place, tonight we’re planning to go to a movie, tomorrow we’ll figure out something, and Sunday is Father’s Day so we’ll go out for that. Not too much longer!