An early arrival!!

July 12, 2016

Pictures Below, Watch for more in the coming days,

Dear Friends,

I am happy to be holding my precious son. He needed to arrive early by C-section because of serious infection and prolapse that I was experiencing. Pain, questions, and decisions have filled our days since this past Friday. I was not prepared for his early arrival, so my helpful sister packed clothes, etc., and has been a huge blessing! He weighs 5.5 lbs. His breathing was labored yesterday, so he was in an incubator with oxygen, IV, and antibiotics. To my dismay, I was unable to hold him until late last evening, and he was born around 9:00 yesterday morning. We are so happy to have him in our room today. I am making up for lost time in holding him. Following is an e-mail that I wrote before going into surgery that I asked Joe to send when the time was right...

> Elliot Layne Yoder is here. His mom is still in surgery. We prayed for a name because it was hard to name him. God gave us this one and the meaning is very perfect for the situations he has already been in in his short life. His name is derived from Elijah in the Bible meaning: "Jehovah is Lord", and Layne is "pathway". We want Jehovah to be Lord of His pathway not only in conception and birth, but all through life, of course. Mark Beachy sent the following verses which also confirmed his name....

> Isaiah 43:10

> “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord.

> “You are my servant.

> You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I

> alone am God.

> There is no other God—

> there never has been, and there never will be.

> Blessings to you,

> Mark

> Dad, the verses you sent helped tremendously with my fears through this time too! Thank you! You and Mom are very important and special to us.

> This email was written before surgery, and I asked Joe to send it when the time is right.

> Glenda

Written By Clara -

Hello Friends!! I don't have much time to write... we've been very busy! But just wanted to let you know of the stress, concern, and most of all EXCITEMENT we've experienced in the last several days! My sister Glenda started having severe pain on Sat. Her baby was not due for another 5-6 weeks so we didn't know what to think! After they left for the hospital we anxiously waited to hear what the Doctor had to say. They discovered that she had a bad infection as well as a major prolapse. They wanted her to lay flat on her back with her head lowered. The Dr. still planned to try for a natural birth but none of us felt good about that because of the situation. We felt that the risk to the baby was too high, but we didn't want to argue with the Dr. By the way... I was SO impressed when I walked into Glenda's room in the Aga Kahn hospital!! It was very nice, modern, and the equipment looked very good! The only strange thing is that this hospital has no elevator! They use ramps to take stretchers and wheelchairs from one floor to the next. The Doctor and nurses seem to be competent and know what they're doing. They are very nice to us if we treat them with respect. On Sunday morning Dr. Bonyo still wanted Glenda to go home and lay flat, not even getting up to use the restroom for 2 weeks!! That looked huge to her, and all of us! But after doing an ultrasound and finding that the baby was a good weight, and after listening to advice from the nurses, Dr. Bonyo suddenly changed her tune and said that they can do C section the next day! Glenda's Dr. at home also confirmed our feelings that C-section would be the safest way to go. We were excited and scared at the same time. We knew that the infection could be very serious and harm the baby as well. But things went well for the most part! Pake Jesu!! I was privileged to be outside the theatre (operating room) this morning when little Elliot Layne made his appearance!! Joe was there too and we could hear him cry! Wayne also came and joined us there a bit later. He came to the hospital to give blood for Glenda because we had been informed that she may need to get blood because of her platelet count or something. As it turned out she didn't need it, but hopefully Wayne's blood can be a blessing to someone else! They soon brought Elliot out for us to see and Joe got to hold him a bit. He is SOO cute with plenty of black hair! And he weighed around 5 and a half lbs. Glenda had extreme pain after the surgery today and nobody could figure out what was wrong. They gave a lot of pain meds which didn't seem to help. Finally this eve. Wayne thought of the fact that the catheter could be causing some of the pain because that was the area of the infection. So the catheter was soon removed and Glenda had almost immediate relief! PTL! Glenda finally got to hold the baby this eve. and we were privileged to take Tiffany in to the hospital this eve. to see her little brother! She seems very happy but quite concerned about seeing her mom with an IV in her hand, etc. Elliot is doing fairly well, but he is in an incubator getting oxygen, antibiotics, and fluids. I think they may be a bit suspicious of a lil pneumonia, but we didn't hear results from the chest xray yet. Your prayers for healing would be much appreciated!!! God is good! Clara