I did consider making everyone wait a couple more hours. Or days. Or maybe weeks. But I suppose we’re both too excited to really pull that off. Plus, I feel like I got enough hate mail to at least partially satisfy my twisted sense of humor 🙂

We present to you our two beautiful children, born at 9:36am on August 28, 2007 in Carle Hospital in Urbana, Illinois:

Marissa Charis “Raisin” Olson and Zachary Alden “Kiwi” Olson!

Zachary means “The Lord Remembers” and Charis is Greek for “grace”. Alden was my grandfather’s name, and we just love the name Marissa (which means sea-loving), and her nickname Rissa means “laughter” 🙂

Well, I’m rather shocked to not be pregnant anymore! I’m so thrilled to see the babies and be able to LOOK at them in all their sweet baby glory, but it’s definitely something to get used to. All 3 of us got our IVs out yesterday and we are all much, much happier! I remember only small pieces of earlier this week and mostly, just that I couldn’t see the babies and then I could and then things started getting better. After that, the memories make more sense. I’m really glad we gave in to buying the minivan when we did! I feel like God has orchestrated each detail so that it works, even though we weren’t planning for any arrivals yet and couldn’t have done any of this planning on our own. I’m still smiling when I think about how we thought Sept. 16-23 would be a good range for them to come, because now I can’t imagine if they weren’t here already! My little cuties. They bring Over the Rhine songs to mind when I look at them.
I expected some hatemail about Matt announcing that we HAD names and then not sharing them 🙂 He is hilarious! They are my kids too, so I could squeal, but I’ll let him do it. He’s done all the work of posting their cutie pictures and updates 🙂 We had to tell the grandparents over the phone before we revealed it publicly, so I’ll bet he tells you very soon. The REASON they weren’t named for so long is because they came early and then I hadn’t been myself until last night and today. I didn’t want to name my children while on crazy drugs! Who knows what I would have agreed to, and then my poor kids would have to explain that their mommy was temporarily luny when I named them. We waited until I could think straight and we could try the names out on them. For the record, I do not like the codeine/darvocet/vicatin family of drugs and I’m not taking them anymore! Blech! I’m on normal tylenol and ibuprofen, and it’s helping the pain without making me crazy. This is a good thing.
I need to go figure out the breast pump they are sending home with me because it is different than my current one. I think I’m being released tomorrow if my labs still look good and then I’ll have to get myself here to be with the babies until they are ready to come home. It will be VERY hard to not be in the same place as them, but we will work it out. God bless my sweet Matt who makes everything beautiful for me and God bless all of you for your love and prayers. The four of us feel very loved!

p.s. Kiwi sneezes 5 times every time he sneezes. Then he squeaks. It melts my heart. And Raisin keeps one fist up by her face while she sleeps just like in her sonogram pictures. He is still very blonde like his mommy but Raisin’s hair is darkening to beautiful golden. I’m hoping for some curls! It’s so cool to SEE them after months of feeling them and to notice ways that they are similar to themselves– the themselves I knew before they had even come out. I’m so amazed by my precious children.

Here’s the next installment of pictures of the cutest babies on the planet!

Mommy feeding her sweet baby girl (she just guzzles that stuff down!):

Our little ones holding Jaime’s finger with their tiny hands (Kiwi held on for half an hour straight!):

Daddy feeding his adorable baby boy a bottle:

The whole family, together at last!

Proud Daddy with his two little ones:

An Olson Family Portrait:

Snuggling together so peacefully:

That’s all for now. Oh, and by the way, we’ve picked their names 🙂