On Monday afternoon, our family was given another gift from God. At 3:37 p.m., my sister gave birth to her first son, John Thomas Koutecky, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. Sidney, Sloan, and I were right there to welcome Little Johnny just moments after he entered the world. Perfectly healthy and very handsome, it was so amazing to hold him.

This photo was taken right after John was born on Monday night.

First off, I am very proud of my sister. She did so well carrying John for nine months, the whole time which she checked up on Sidney during the final months of her pregnancy and Facetimed us nightly once Sloan was born. Although she was carrying her own child, she unselfishly put our situation before hers. That is just the type of person Miranda is.

Congrats to Miranda!

With John’s birth, it caps a wild four months for us. Sloan was born in March, Henry was born in June, and John was born in July. Our family has definitely grown. Just yesterday, we looked at a photo from our wedding in June of 2016. The image was predominately of our two families. Sidney and I looked at each other and said, who in this photo would have thought that just a little over a year later there would be three new babies hanging around?

Several of the people in this photo would be impacted by three babies that would enter the world in just 13 months.

What a blessing that Sloan gets to be around John for the first week of his life. Although they will have no memory of their initial time spent together and although thousands of miles will soon separate them, they will be special cousins. Sloan will brag that she has a west coast cousin and John will say he has a sweet southern cousin. They will always look forward to their visits together.

Thank you God for John’s safe delivery and for Miranda’s health. Also, thank you for letting my mom keep her sanity through a very busy week. Don’t Blink.