Riley Nathan King

After much anticipation, Riley Nathan King finally entered this world at 2:25 in the morning on 29 July 2008, one day after Jaden turned 20 months, and less than nine hours before a scheduled c-section. After 12 days, it is already hard to imagine life without him.

Considering that it took me this long to post even this short blog entry, I have decided to share my birth story (minus the graphic details) and post-birth stories in short doses, as time allows. These days, my time is dominated by feeding Riley and playing with Jaden. Then comes laundry, dishes, critical errands, and napping, leaving very little time for blogging. So, be patient with me, and you'll get all the information and pictures you need, maybe even a little more than you need :)

Riley means "valiant", a characteristic that Peter and I will do everything in our power to instill in both our boys. Our goal is to raise Jaden and Riley to be courageous men of God, something that is sadly lacking in most of society these days.

We had a little more trouble deciding on a middle name. We had three "finalists", but none of them were really jumping out at us as the right fit. We enlisted the help of the grandmothers, and while they disagreed about which of the three names they liked the best, both conversations led us to a new idea. . .Nathan. Nathan is my little brother's middle name, and while talking with my mom, he was in the background campaigning for it. Then, while taking to Peter's mom, his dad was in the background asserting Nathan as a shortened version of Peter's middle name, Jonathan. So, we got to thinking about it, and it seemed to fit. In addition to the two aforementioned reasons, it starts with an "N" like my middle name, and it means "gift of God", which he truly is. We also really liked the character of the prophet Nathan who was an adviser and friend to King David.

Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite. I don't know if he looks like me or Peter, but I know he looks like Jaden. I'll get some side by side pictures of the boys up in one of my future posts.

This is my first picture with Riley, shortly after his birth.

This is Peter's first picture with him, as soon as I was willing to give him up.

Finally, here's our little monkey with his little monkey, all cleaned and bundled.


There are a ton more pictures on our Picasa site, and we'll be continuing to add more. Take a look if you're interested!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/PBnJ.King/RileyNathanKing

Well, I'll try to get the next posts written soon, but I can't make any promises. Don't give up on me, and keep checking back from time to time!!