Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Welcome Caedmon Robert Golackson!

At 6:00am on Monday, Feb. 13th, Lindsey gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was a big boy...much to our surprise. He weighed 8lbs. 14oz. and was 21 1/2 in. long. We did a water birth and enjoyed the experience very much. Mom and baby are both doing well and Lily appears to adore her baby brother. She visited twice on Monday and repeatedly said, "Baby" and gave him lots of kisses. He also got a few whacks on the head, but we had to remind her, "be gentle" and she listened very well. What a huge blessing from the Lord.

First, we will share a Scripture that we are praying for Caedmon's life and then the story of his name and what it means. Please read that first. Then you get to see some pictures. But before you look at all of the pictures, we have a little contest for you. Since we are amazed at how much Lily and Caedmon looked alike at birth, daddy put together some pictures and will test you to see if you can guess who's who. There are 8 pictures total...4 of each baby. They will be listed 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b. Write down on a piece of paper which baby you think is which and then go to the "comments" link at the bottom of this post and give us your guesses (be sure to leave your name so we know who you are). In about a week or so we will give the answers to you in a new post.

Just so you know, Lindsey's Mom has been here since about 6pm on Monday....it's about 4:30pm on Tuesday. So she has seen Caedmon in living color and she had a hard time telling who was who. Some of the pictures are black and white because blanket colors give them away.

The Scripture that we have chosen to pray for Caedmon and believe the Lord for is
Proverbs 14:26-27
In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
and his children will have a refuge.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
that one may turn away from the snares of death.

As far as how we chose the name, we were going back and forth between the names Jacob and Oliver. We could not decide and about a month ago Josh came home and Lindsey said, "What about the name Caedmon?" We fell in love with the name and decided right there that that would be our boys name. Lindsey found it on a baby name website. It means "wise warrior" and is of Anglo-Saxon origin. There is a contemporary Christian band called Caedmon's Call that Mom and Dad both really like. If you haven't heard of them, we highly recommend checking them out- http://www.caedmonscall.com/ They sing of real life struggles that we face as believers in Christ and certainly aren't afraid to expose their weaknesses.

We then did a little research online on the name Caedmon and here's what we found:
Author of Biblical Poems in Anglo-Saxon, date of birth unknown; died between 670 and 680...
Caedmon, whose name is perhaps Celtic (Bradley), or a Hebrew or Chaldaic pseudonym (Palgrave, Cook), was at first attached as a labourer to the double monastery of Whitby (Streoneshalh), founded in 657 by St. Hilda, a friend of St. Aidan...One night, when the servants of the monastery were gathered about the table for good-fellowship, and the harp was passed from hand to hand, Caedmon, knowing nothing of poetry, left the company for shame, as he had often done, and retired to the stable, as he was assigned that night to the care of the draught cattle. As he slept, there stood by him in vision one who called him by name, and bade him sing. "I cannot sing, and therefore I left the feast", Caedmon replied. "Sing to me, however, sing of Creation." Thereupon Caedmon began to sing in praise of God verses which he had never heard before. In the morning Caedmon recited his story and his verses to Hilda and the learned men of the monastery, and all agreed that he had received a Divine gift.

It is our prayer that our Caedmon will be used by God in mighty ways and that his "call" will be to live a life that is characterized by the fear of the Lord (fear= reverence, piety).

We hope that you enjoy the pictures...finally :)

You can also click on the link titled "Lily's photos" under "Links" right under our personal profile at the top right of this page. We will update that with a lot more pictures because it's not practical to put them all on here.

See if you can tell who's who!!

1A.



1B.



2A.



2B.



3A.



3B.



4A.



4B.



Here's a few more photos for your viewing pleasure!

Me and my Mommy






Me and my Daddy



Daddy's got his hands full!



My big sister Lily watching over me while I sleep





Meeting my big sister for the first time!



Me and my family. What a crew!























Grandma Stoffel giving me a big wet kiss!




My first visitors, Evan & Maggie




It's a high tech world...gotta start young these days!





Well, it's been a long day...



I'm going home now!



8 comments:

The Kilps Family said...

Congratulations on Caedmon's birth. He looks like a wise warrior to us! We can't wait to meet him! Here are our answers:
1A - Caedmon
1B - Lily
2A - C
2B - L
3A - L
3B - C
4A - L
4B - C

Anonymous said...

Sarah
1a caedmon
1b lily
2a caedmon
2b lily
3a lily
3b caedmon
4a lily
4b caedmon

Anonymous said...

Answers by Nikki:
1A - Lily
1B - Caedmon

2A - Caedmon
2B - Lily

3A - Lily
3B - Caedmon

4A - Lily
4B - Caedmon

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!!!!
We are soooo happy for you both.
I'm not even going to hazard a guess, but I will tell you that all three of our kids looked very much alike at birth. The girls, and 22 and 18, are still considered cookie cutters of each other.

Anyway. Blessings to All four of you, Josh, Lindsey, Lilly and Caedmon.

Phil and Susan

Anonymous said...

Hi from Auntie Rachael! God is raising up His army. Owen is Celctic for little warrior. How awesome. Caedmon is so cute. My answers are the same as Andy and Karen's:
1A Caedmon
1B Lily
2A C
2B L
3A L
3B C
4A L
4B C

Kate said...

I am so excited for your sweet family!!! :) I will be praying for all of you and look forward to seeing you at church! How funny is it that we have the same blog background!?! :)

His, Kate

Anonymous said...

Children are a BLESSING! We are so thankful that you WILL be raising a young warrior!

What beautiful pictures of a beautiful family!

The Brinks Family said...

Congratulations! Now you have "the perfect family" in the eyes of our chinese friends-better have another soon! Here is my answers...it a toughy!
1a-C
1b-L
2a-C
2b-L
3a-L
3b-C
4a-L
4b-C