RICK AND GEMINA HAVE THEIR NEW BABY BOY (OUR 78TH GRANDCHILD)

There has been a lot of excitement around here for the past month!  Rick and Gemina were having a child through the surrogacy program and the term was drawing close to the end.  The surrogate mother lives here in Salt LAke. They received a report that things were moving along so they quickly drove up and set up shop at Cheryl's bonus apartment.

Turned out that the report was a false alarm so they decided to stay.  Rick set up his office with computer, several monitors and a fax printer so he could carry out his law work from Cheryl's.  Baby monitoring showed that this was a large baby.

When the time came, the surrogate desired to have the birth without anesthesia.  The baby was 9 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 22" long. Rob was 9 pounds 12 ounces when born and was the  largest of ours.  All did well. and all were filled with joy.

Here is Gemina giving a bottle and the little guy looks like he is already a month old.  His name is Luken which is a Basque variant of Luke.

Here is Rick, proud father, holding little Luken.  While we were waiting for the arrival, we had time to spend with Rick and Gemina so there were several lunches and dinners and it was so much fun.  All the baby books of advice were brought out as they tried to make their way through conflicting theories of child raising.  I had to chuckle as I observed.  Rick discovered that he is a little further down on the attention list as the new arrival takes the demands of the mom.  But they were all thrilled and there was much joy.

The little guy quickly outgrew the newborn clothing and proved to be a very strong little guy lifting his head at the beginning and doing pushups when laid on his tummy.

Gemina arranged to rent a home over in the 'Harvard
Yale area for two weeks and Rick set up shop again and tried to do some work as there while all this maternity stuff was going on.  There were new bassinets, strollers and other paraphernalia.

Here is the Opa checking out his new Wirthlin Stammhalter and Grandchild # 78.  Gemina's sister came to help when they moved into the house and now Gemina, sister and little Luken flew back to LA.  Rick loaded up  his pickup with all the office supplies and all the baby stuff purchased here in Salt Lake and drove back home.

Tis is so great and we are happy for Rick and Gemina who have been wanting a little child for several years.

Love to all,  Oma und Opa