2 Cousins on both sides.

 

Watch her grow!

 

We're moving!

Hi Everyone,

How things have changed in the last month!

First off, Alia Chloe is growing, and we’re having fun with her. We have to admit we think she is the cutest little person ever… especially her "o" face… you’ll have to see it some time (we haven’t caught it on camera yet.)

She is a delight and a joy but she also has colic which has proved to make tougher people out of Mommy and Daddy. Please pray that we can find out if this is just "normal colic" where there is not much we can do or if it’s a food allergy or some other strange environmental variable.
Remember how we contemplated the definition of insanity before, now with Alia’s colic thrown into the mix--we know we’re over the edge!

Our trip to Michigan over the Easter weekend went well, Becky and Alia both did great during the long car ride there. The last hour on the return trip to the Quad Cities was the hardest with Alia being inconsolable from the colic. :-(

On the home front—we’ve got a house! Thanks to our terrific family members and friends who put out feelers for us we now have great Christian landlords and just about everything we had hoped for in a property. Praise God for His provision!

So here is our new information,
Paul, Becky and Alia Kortman
(Removed due to privacy issues)
Please email us @ kortmans@----paulkortman.com for our address etc. (Hint, remove the dashes, those are added to prevent spam)

We are now in the process of packing up all our earthly belongings (that are in Illinois) and will be returning to West Michigan with our U-haul truck on Wednesday, April 26th.

If you want to help (we would appreciate it!), please meet us at our new address on that Wednesday evening at 6pm to unload the truck. Please understand that our inter-state drive with a colicky newborn will not allow us to accurately gage our arrival time and sadly will not be able to feed you supper, but our hearts pour out with love and appreciation for your willingness to assist us.

We want to give public appreciation to our family members who have already taken time to clean our new place and prepare it for our arrival in our absence. What a blessing to have such loving, giving and selfless family members. Thank You So Much!!!!

PS check out the photos in the next two emails!

Baby Kortman Arrives!

"Praise the LORD!"

We are overjoyed to share our news and so very grateful to our Father in Heaven for blessing us with the safe arrival of our daughter, Alia Chloe Kortman. She was welcomed into our arms at 4:33 a.m . on Saturday, April 8th weighing 8lb. 13oz. and measuring 20 1/2''.


*The name Alia (pronounced ah-LEE-ah) means "noble". Her Great-Grandpa Edighoffer once had a dream that our baby would be girl named Chloe (which means "blossom") and were were pleased to honor him in this way. Chloe is also the name of a house church leader in 1 Corinthians 1:11. We hope that some day she too will be a strong leader for Jesus and desire to share her home and faith with others.


She was born at home with our midwife, Nancy, her assistant, Chamein and Auntie Christy assisting Paul and I in this special moment. Our dark haired little bundle took her time in coming. Lia began her entrance into this world 10 hours before she made an appearance, and we are thankful the process was smooth and without major trouble for both Lia and mommy.


The Kortman FamilyPaul, Becky & Lia 

And Bigger...

I know a lot of you had expected this email to say it's a boy or it's a girl. Not yet, Becky and Biscuit are still growing! Have you ever tried to fill a water balloon and get it as full as you can without breaking it, you keep putting water in it, it gets bigger and bigger, ya never know when it'll pop!

Becky's sister, Christy, threw a surprise baby shower for us inviting all our Quad City friends! We had so much fun! It is always a good time when friends from all the different areas of your life come together. We are blessed!

We do have big news in another arena; I (Paul) have accepted a job in Holland MI. We will be moving there at the end of this month. The job is great, the company I will be working for is great; the only problem is we do not currently have a place to move to!

So, if you have any contacts in or near Ottawa County who may know of a place for us, please let us know. We're looking for a house to rent (2+ Bedrooms) for less than $700, where we can have a dog, a large vegetable garden and possibly some chickens. We hope to land somewhere within a 30 minute drive to Holland, and probably not within any city limits. This is our best case scenario and obviously we know we can't be too picky at this point (with only 3 weeks to relocate).

Many of you may think we're crazy to plan a move when our baby hasn't even been born, we'll your not alone! Over dinner last night we discussed the definition of insanity and how it applies to our situation. However, we have been earnestly seeking God through this process as it has been developing and we believe He will provide. He has a place for us. Please join us by praying and searching to discover that place and have as smooth of a transition as possible!

Stay tuned for more information including the birth of our first born!