Her name is Zoe Dance Christensen. She was born 7 lbs 1 oz 20 inch long. Her mother, Amanda Dance Christensen, is an amazing woman. Everything went well and both baby and mom are healthy and strong.
As soon as she came into this world, her sweet spirit could be felt instantly. She is the most amazing and beautiful little infant I have ever seen. To watch her be born was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. What a miracle.
When she came out and was getting cleaned by the nurses, one of the first things everyone noticed was how aware she was. Her eyes were wide open and she was looking around everywhere. She cried, but her cries were sweet. After she was all cleaned up, mom held her for a while. We discovered that Zoe (although she didn't have a name at that point) looked most like her mom, especially her little nose. Dad was able to hold her after that. We thought that she had dad's eyes. Grandma Dance was with us as well and she was able to hold her too. These were very tender moments; holding such a precious and little soul for the first time. She is such a little angel. She didn't have a name at this point, and we often just called her our angel baby.
We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours and then we brought our angel baby home. We hadn't finalized a name yet, although we were talking a lot about Zoe. There were 3 or 4 names we "tried out" on her in the hospital just to see how we felt about them. Zoe seemed to stand out, but we hadn't made it official on the social security card information yet. In fact, we accidentally brought the social security card information sheet home with us (we were supposed to leave it at the hospital. We could call in later with the name since we hadn't decided yet). We got a call from the nurses telling us they needed that social security card information sheet the next day. By the next morning, we were 100% decided on naming her Zoe Christensen. We had talked about giving her a middle name, but thought that we would not. As we drove up to the hospital that morning, we thought about having her middle name be Dance. Dance is Amanda's maiden name, and it is a fun/unique/meaningful name that we thought would be nice to carry on in Zoe's name, especially since Zoe looked so much like her mom. So we pulled out the paperwork and on the way to the hospital to turn in all the information, we wrote down Zoe Dance Christensen. It felt so right.
She is now almost 4 weeks old and I can't imagine her name being anything else. She is such a little Zoe. She has been a great baby so far! She sleeps well, eats well, and is so adorable when she is awake. We took her to a family event last week, and everybody that saw her would sort of "melt" at the sight of her. She is so darn cute. Everyone keeps saying she is one of the most beautiful babies they've ever seen.
I 100% agree.
Life has new meaning. We have a new purpose. We have a new/special spirit in our home. Our lives are forever changed for the better and its only the beginning.
We are so grateful for the blessing of our beautiful, healthy baby girl, Zoe Dance Christensen.
We love you Zoe.
