{"id":18333,"date":"2017-12-26T14:57:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T20:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=18333"},"modified":"2017-12-26T14:57:54","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T20:57:54","slug":"a-christmas-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20171226-18333.htm","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After 55 hours of labor, we were pleased to welcome Beth-Ellen Irene Garcia into the outside world on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n<p>She was born at 42 weeks, just like her mother before her, and, by the grace of God, via an unmedicated vaginal birth after 2 cesarean sections. <\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-12\/IMG_2392.JPG' alt='Welcoming Beth-Ellen into the family' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p>She is the answer to prayer, a delightful Christmas present. But, as the reporter from our local news forced me to clarify, Beth-Ellen is not the greatest Christmas present ever.<\/p>\n<p>As I told the reporter (unfortunately, the most important part got left out of the news clip), that distinction is reserved for another baby, one born over 2000 years ago. Because while Beth-Ellen came on Christmas to be a part of our family, Jesus came as &#8220;not just a member of our family but someone who came to make us a member of God\u2019s family, and that\u2019s truly the greatest gift. And what a treasure we have to be able to share that with our daughter, our Beth-Ellen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen src=\"http:\/\/up.anv.bz\/latest\/anvload.html?key=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\"  width =\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Rejoicing in the Incarnation &#8211; and in this precious gift we get to share Christ&#8217;s gift with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 55 hours of labor, we were pleased to welcome Beth-Ellen Irene Garcia into the outside world on Christmas Day. She was born at 42 weeks, just like her mother before her, and, by the grace of God, via an unmedicated vaginal birth after 2 cesarean sections. She is the answer to prayer, a delightful &#8230; <a title=\"A Christmas gift\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20171226-18333.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Christmas gift<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5,1290],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18333"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18339,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions\/18339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}