Kairis Elysa Thomas

Sorry I couldn't share any earlier. We forgot to bring our camera cord to the hospital with us. We did bring the camcorder cord so you saw video first. Now thanks to Joel & Lani, we have a cord to download photos, and better yet, Lani has taken some really good ones I am also posting.

So, Kairis comes from the greek word "Charis" meaning "grace" and "Karis" meaning "love" in Welsh. Since I have family history from Wales, I kinda liked the name, and grace and love are great reminders of what God has done in our lives. To carry on in his faithfulness, we also included "iris" at the end of her name referencing how I knew Heidi was "the one"

In 2001 when I left Kansas to go to Bible school in Colorado, I wrote in my journal that I would focus my attention on my Lord rather than girls and He would let me know that "she" was the one by having her give me my favorite flower of a purple iris on my birthday without ant prior knowledge of the journal writing. Well, after a year at CBC, Heidi left me 3 purple irises on my pillow for graduation. 8 days later on my birthday, I open a box from her with a note saying, "I thought it might be fun to get you flowers for your birthday, but since you are traveling with the worship band and I didn't know where you would be, I gave them to you early for graduation." Nobody can make up a story like that, and we wanted to make it a part of our family heritage, so we included "iris" in her name.

Elysa is just a pretty name we both liked, coming from "Elisa" which is Spanish for "Dedicated to God" and "Alyssa" meaning "noble". And untill Kairis gets married, she's stuck with Thomas at the end. ;)

well, enjoy these photos, I'll slip more in tomorrow.




minutes after birth.



1 hour old.



Saturday afternoon, and more to come! Isn't she beautiful?

-T