Josephine Eva-Marie

She is here! We praise God for the gift of life and for blessing our family with our newest little daughter, Josephine! She was born on November 28th at 12:28pm and came in weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 2oz (our biggest baby yet)! Even though she doesn’t look that big, she must have a HUGE heart…and a lot of hair! This labor and delivery was one of the easiest and most peaceful. We want to thank you all for your prayers for our family and ask that you continue praying for Stacie’s recovery. Stacie did great and I have never seen her look so good after the birth. Many told us that a home birth was a bad idea (we’ve had 2 previously at home- both were awesome experiences) and some thought that a birth in a foreign country was even worse. At our send-off Mass from Mission Formation in Louisiana, our Director, Joseph Summers joked about how we were taking the FMC logo a little too seriously .

It is not too often that one would hear about a large family moving to the other side of the world to give birth at their place of residence not knowing if they’re American friends would make it on time to help with the delivery. Mark and Lora Eckstine (with their 10 children) arrived in Malaybalay on the 14th of November. Our family had just moved out of the Romero’s place and into the new house a few days before and after many plumbing repairs- thanks for your help, Sammy. So, if you add their twelve plus our eight…that’s right! Twenty of us living in a four bedroom home. Good thing Mark and I were able to fix a toilet upstairs or it would have been chaotic with only one useable restroom. Days before I was thinking, “Can 20 of us really live here and make it work?” Not only was there enough beds (or should I say bedding?) for everyone in this house and enough toilets but we even managed to squeeze both families into a Tamaraw! Kind of a good thing to not have to worry about seat belt laws here. The only trouble with a Tamaraw full of people is when it won’t start and it has to be pushed to “pop the clutch”- one of my new favorite techniques. It’s actually not too bad of a missionary vehicle. We are just on the lookout now for more downhill slopes to park on .
Back to the house though. Every morning had been immediately glorious in it. Mark brought out his guitar and the house soon filled up with praises from beautiful Eckstine voices and semi-on-key Alvarezes to open up our Liturgy of the Hours. The sounds coming from our home attracted Tito Vic one day to drop by and join us. Tito Vic is the owner of the house and offered it to us rent-free. Praise God! He has an adjoining art workshop next door and came intending to work. Instead, he joined us in prayer and worship. Thank God for the Baretto Family and their generosity!
Now that you have a little background information on how and where we live, I will get back to the main character of this post. Josephine was born exactly when God wanted her to. The Romeros decided after much prayer and discernment to return to the U.S. and share their testimony of how God used them here. Susanna and Rebekah already had their plans to continue their mission and leave for India. That left the Romero’s place open for the Eckstines to move into. We all gathered to pray over Sammy,Lindsey, and family and also for Rebekah (Susanna had already left). So, the very morning that the Eckstines were going to move, Stacie began labor. She woke Lora at midnight to give her a warning that the contractions had started. Romeros and Rebekah leaving, Eckstines moving, us rearranging the rooms…it was all working in God’s perfect timing!
We didn’t have a way to communicate with the Eckstines if they had moved out. All that morning Stacie labored and the contractions got more difficult. We prayed through them together as Lora and her daughter Abi prepared for delivery. Our oldest, Maddie, was also present and helping with preparations. This was it! As it got closer to noon, Stacie was starting to feel the urge to push. It seemed to me that she only pushed a few times and then she was ready. Finally, the time came where we knew that this baby was coming out. Stacie got into a squatting position in the middle of the room and began to deliver our baby. It was an awkward position for me to “catch” but Lora noted that the cervix is able to open 30% more this way. I held the baby’s head and waited for that last push to bring the shoulders and body through. Stacie pushed one last time and yelled," A baby girl! It’s my baby girl!” I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked because I was thinking it was a boy this whole time. Stacie was able to see her first because of the way my arms were blocking my view. It really was a baby girl!!! WOW! “Praise God!” is all that came to my mind. I didn’t think it would be 12 years until we’d have another daughter but God’s plan is perfect. We all smiled, laughed, cried tears of joy together. Well, since it IS a girl, we needed to name her. We found out about the pregnancy on the Feast of the Annunciation back in March and we prayed that if it was a girl born on a Marian feast day that we would name her Miriam Esme. We waited through two Marian feast days – The Feast of the Presentation of Mary on November 21, and the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal on the 27th, thinking surely it would be either of these two days. Since those days had passed, we thought it must be a baby boy to be born near December 3rd (Feast of St. Francis Xavier) since we had chosen to name a boy Xavier Emmanuel. I have always loved the name Josephine. Stacie looked at her newest daughter and said, “She doesn’t look like a Miriam. She looks like a Josephine.” God had made it clear. Cool with me.
P.S. Here are some facts about the name Joseph/Josephine:
St. Joseph the worker is my Confirmation saint. St. Josephine Bakhita is my other favorite saint. My mother’s name is Josefina. These are three of the main reasons why we picked this name.

Here is one of the myths of why we picked this name (inside joke lang):
We named her Josephine after our FMC Director, Joseph Summers. We did it to “score major points” with him so that he would feel SO honored and give us an all-expense paid, first-class trip to Rome to have the baby baptized by Pope Benedict XVI.

Well, maybe. But if that was the case, then we would have named her Josephine “Genie” Brooklyn Alvarez for maximum point value. Until then, we will settle for her to be baptized by our priest from last year’s post on Camiguin : Father “JOE” Villamil  .

She's a "keeper"

"So, what do you think about being born into the Alvarez Family?"

Josephine's 4 Bodyguards    

Custom-made booties from Big Sis

                                     

Ain't a party without a lechon 

Even though he wanted a baby brother...he'll settle for her :)

The first group viewing of the littlest sister