Aurora Beatrice Smith

"By the tender mercy of our God,
            the dawn from on high will break upon us,
      to give light to those who sit in darkness
                  and in the shadow of death,
            to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

-Luke 1.78-79

Merry Christmas! God's new day has dawned in Christ and in this season we celebrate the new life we now share.

We are also celebrating another new life that has dawned upon us this season. On Christmas Eve we received an early gift when Jessica gave birth to a lovely and healthy little girl. We have named her Aurora Beatrice Smith. Aurora is Latin for "dawn" and Beatrice comes from the Latin for "traveller", bringing together the ideas in these two verses, which have been very significant for us over the last couple of years.*

The labour began around midnight and Aurora was born naturally around 1.30pm. Mother and baby are both in excellent health.

There are more details and photos over on Jessica's blog and I am sure they will keep multiplying there in the coming days and weeks.

We shared a lovely, quiet (and white!) Christmas Day yesterday and are delighted to have our "babymoon" in this special season of nativity and joy. With hope and delight we embrace the promise of Immanuel ("God with us") as we remember the birth of his son and welcome a beautiful little stranger as our daughter.
*See this sermon I wrote after being diagnosed with cancer.