Story behind the name Mabel

Our daughter Eliza Mabel is now 1 week old. She had a check up on Tuesday the 13th, which was one of the coldest Minnesota mornings for an 8am appt. As Tom drove me to the clinic for her appt. the temperature was reading -26 degrees outside. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 2 oz. Her weight will start out slow since she took to nursing very slowly. It wasn't until she was 3 days old that she finally caught on to nursing. Those 1st 3 days took alot of work just to get her to start nursing and then more work to keep her awake to get a decent meal. Despite all of that, the doctor said he doesn't need to see her again until she's 2 months old. I do plan on taking her at the end of next week to get a weight check just for my own peace of mind to know that she's nursing well. Eliza's is nursing well now and is sleeping at night. If she keeps the same pattern up, she sleeps for 5-7 hours at night! I've never had a newborn do that. I must say that the extra sleep is quite nice.

Eliza's middle name is Mabel. She is named after my Great Aunt Mabel Suderman, on my Dad's side of the family. Mabel and her husband John were missionaries to the Hopi Indians in Arizona. During a summer family vacation while I was in Elementary school, we visited Aunt Mabel at her home in Flagstaff, AZ. She took us to the Hopi Indian Reservation to show us where she and her husband had worked. Later in life when she lived in some retirement apartments in Kansas, she led a Bible study. Even when she moved to a nursing home for the last couple years of her life, she continued to lead a Bible study there, too. She lived to be 100 years old and was still leading a Bible study up till the week before she died.

I would love to be able to finish my life here on earth well like she did.