A week ago, we welcomed our baby boy Joseph into the world. Being our fifth, there was so much about the newborn experience that was familiar. Getting to hold a fresh, new baby on my chest and staring at him for the first time, completely in awe of new life. Reveling at how tiny babies are when they are first born, everything is just so small! The baby and I learning the new dance of nursing. The little sounds they make, those early snuggles. The best.

This time though, things also felt so completely different. For three weeks before Joey came we had been sheltering in place. School was closed and Pat had been working from home for a while already. I was working off of teacher lesson plans to create a homeschool schedule and taking over duties as piano teacher. I cried lots of tears as I had to adjust to the new reality that my mom wouldn’t be able to come stay with us like she had planned. Even at my age now, one of the most comforting things in the world after such great an act as childbirth, is just having my mom with me. It’s hard even now writing about it. And, with Caleb having an untimely fever/cough virus, we weren’t even sure if Pat’s parents would be able to be with us either.

About a week before Joey came we were hearing from various people that due to virus precautions, there were some hospitals not allowing husbands to be in the delivery room during childbirth. Before confirming with our hospital that this was not the case for us, I had yet another good cry around the idea of Pat not being with me during birth. So many tears. Even after confirming with the hospital, I had to prepare myself that the regulations could change. At that point I just wanted the baby to come early while the current rules were still in place.

It was really weird anticipating the birth of our baby and the hospital not feeling like a safe place. I was in contact with my OB and pediatrician asking how quickly we could be discharged, on our end just trying to minimize our family’s virus exposure. Once in the hospital, it was so strange not seeing the faces of most of the nurses and doctors that were caring for us due to their protective masks. I was keenly aware of the frequency of hand sanitizer use and a little nervous as each new person entered the room. It was all so different and so strange. Pat and I were relieved when we were able to come home with our new baby and finally introduce him to his sisters and brother who weren’t allowed to visit in the hospital.

Somehow in the midst of all this uncertainty and changes of plans, my experience was not overwhelmed by anxiety and fear around what we were lacking. Instead, I was caught off guard time and time again by incredible, lavish, abundance in the form of friends and loved ones providing above and beyond for us. Just a few days before Joey was born, my friend and mentor encouraged and reminded me that this is God’s nature, stretching and multiplying what little we have or helping us be content and joyful with little. In my hospital recovery room, I first tasted this abundance in the form of a little, red dinosaur thermos that Pat filled with seaweed soup that our friend Julia had left at our door that day. Korean postpartum comfort food in a bowl. I devoured it. From that moment on, so much abundance.

Countless pots of seaweed soup and more on the way.

The prettiest flowers that I placed around my room. One of my neighbors is a talented floral arranger, I’ve spent many moments staring at the whimsical beauty of the blooms as I cuddle with Joey.

Texts from neighbors and friends making trips to Costco and various markets, wanting to pick up items for us and bringing them to our door. Including a farmer’s market trip in the pouring rain!

Huge bags of crafts, armloads of new to us picture books, and baby things from our amazing neighborhood village.

Chocolates from a friend who knows me well.

A jar of kimchi!

Marco Polo messages and texts with good friends, sharing lots of photos and random new baby musings.

Pat’s parents staying with us, my mother-in-law waking up with the big kids every morning and the joy she brings to them. All the laundry that she’s been folding for our huge family! My father-in-law’s fresh bread and cooking, which has become a new comfort food for me.

A surprise caravan of cars decorated to celebrate my birthday! Joey got to meet his loving aunties and little future friend crew from a safe 6-feet away distance on our sidewalk. I can’t even tell you what this meant to me, as I’ve just been longing for my closest friends to meet my newest baby.

It’s weird to think about this current world that Joey was born into, with so much uncertainty around us. Of course, he has no idea, swaddled up in his blanket and sleeping the day away. But someday we will tell him stories of this crazy pandemic that the world was faced with, his birth in the midst of that, and then the many, many stories of the abundant ways our family was loved and cared for, when his mama thought we would would be lacking so much.