Anabella Tonya and Caleb Martin DeLisi!!!!
We are very excited to introduce our new son and daughter, born on 9-10-11 (the day Tonya was hoping for – since we went from 9 kids, to 10 and 11). The birth was a both a great blessing and the most difficult that we have ever had. It was the easiest labor that Tonya has ever had, and it was a joy to see the twins born. Anabella came out relatively easy, despite being "sunny side up". When she came out, Caleb flipped from transverse (sideways) to breech (feet first) and was delivered vaginally. If you have never seen a vaginal breech deliver, consider yourself fortunate. Our OB was very skilled and did a great job, but that was absolutely the roughest looking delivery I have ever seen. There is a reason that breech babies aren't delivered that way routinely. :)
Anabella Tonya was born at 10:35 AM and weighed 4# 12oz. "Anabella" means "God has favored me". "Tonya", of course, is after my lovely bride and her precious Mommy, who I am so glad we are finally able to honor with a birth name. The "Ana" in "Anabella" was chosen because we wanted to honor her big sister in Heaven, Anastasha. We will likely call her "Bella", which is the Italian word for "beautiful". And she is…absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Even by this Daddy's objective standards. :)
Caleb Martin was born at 10:41 AM and weighed 5# 12oz. "Caleb" was chosen because of who he was in the Old Testament. More than once in Scripture when his name is mentioned, it is followed by the phrase, "who served the Lord wholeheartedly". We pray that will be the same for our little fella as he grows into a boy and someday a man. "Martin" is a family name – my middle name, my uncle's and great grandfather's first name.
Despite being the bigger "little brother" to Anabella, Caleb (in premie white boy fashion) had respiratory issues that began shortly after he was born. It culminated in him being intubated and flown by helicopter to Dallas, where he spent 7 days in the neonatal ICU. Once his breathing calmed down, we were grateful that he breast fed vigorously. That resulted in us coming home a couple of days earlier than we expected – praise God! There are many details and specific answered prayers – getting to 35 weeks gestation, having them spontaneously on 9-10-11, and many others - but I am usually WAY too wordy with my emails, so I'll keep it short.
We are enjoying the twins and rejoicing in God's faithfulness to us. We are really in awe and feel completely undeserving to be entrusted with these little lives. We know there will be some unique adjustments to life with twins. Tandem nursing is going well. But having 3 kids in diapers again isn't much fun. We'll be on "germ lock down" mode for the next few months since they are premies, and Caleb in particular is more vulnerable to infection because of his respiratory distress. So we'll be keeping life simple, and hopefully slower paced than usual.
Thank you for praying for us on this journey. We are tired, but so, so thankful.
May our Great and Loving Father bless and keep each of you!
Craig, Tonya, Ariana, Charis, Adoniyah, Amalyah, Corban, Caelan, Cale, Caius, Anastasha, Anabella and Caleb (isn't that craaaazzzzzyyyyyy????!!!!!)
