I can’t wait to meet this sweet baby girl.
I am so grateful for these photos. They are a celebration of her life, this gift from God, and this miracle of His good design.
And they hold a particularly special place in my heart as they were taken in the very spot where Clay proposed…
We put a blanket down right where he had set it all up.
This view. This memory. This most special place.
And now we were back here with our baby girl in my belly.
We danced right where we danced that night. The night Clay pulled me in close to the tune of It Is Well With My Soul–the very song we’d listened to on our first date that is so special to me.
And on this evening he hummed a melody as we danced with our baby girl.
Three years and eight months later… 32 weeks pregnant… my, what a journey we’ve been on.
It’s been a journey of the greatest joy my heart has ever known, of unexpected plot twists, of difficult terrain, and of great, great blessing.
It is here we stand on the promises of God, in full confidence that He created this life, that He will bless this life, and that He will guide us as parents as we teach our daughter all about the Story God is telling and how her life is a part of it.
In many ways pregnancy is like engagement. For we have been given a promise, and yet we wait for it’s fulfillment to come.
When Clay asked me to be his wife and gave me a promise with that engagement ring, I waited for those six months that followed to receive the fullness of that promise on our wedding day.
And in this pregnancy we have received a promise of new life to come from God, and yet we wait to receive the fullness of this promise on the day when we will get to hold her in our arms.
I can’t wait to watch him hold our baby girl in his arms. I can’t wait to see the way she looks at him. And I can’t wait for her to experience that incredibly safe, incredibly loved, incredibly peaceful feeling when wrapped in her daddy’s arms.
They are my favorite place to be.
I can’t wait to hear her sweet giggles when her daddy makes her laugh.
He’s the one who makes me smile and laugh and feel the greatest joys of life the most.
Clay is going to be such a wonderful father–kind and loving, sweet and patient, Spirit-filled and Jesus-led.
And I cannot wait to step into the role of motherhood–to love this baby fiercely, to teach her and to protect her, and most of all to guide her into becoming the woman God has created her to be.
I can’t wait to take her hand and run swiftly with her, further and further into God’s Kingdom and into the life to the full that He has for us here.
This baby girl is the greatest blessing I’ve ever received from the Lord. I can’t wait to receive the fullness of this promise on the day when she is born.
“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3
And what I love about this whole idea of waiting for the fulfillment of a promise in both engagement and pregnancy, is that really all of our lives are like it. For we have been given a promise–of eternal life with Jesus, and our lives here on this earth are simply a waiting for that great promise to be fulfilled.
And oh, what joy there is to be found in the waiting.
Oh, what good gifts lie along the path…
And oh, what wonderful blessings lie amidst the trials and heartaches of pain and loss.
Clay, my long-awaited husband, is a testament to the good gifts God longs to give us.
And this precious rainbow baby girl in my belly is now, too.
I can’t wait for her to learn and know and stand on every promise God has given us in this life–particularly these three:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. – Psalm 139:14
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you.” – Isaiah 43:1-2
photos: Apple Rose Photography
dresses: Pink Blush Maternity
