A long absence... and a growing family

I haven't blogged since March. I still read the blogs I follow regularly and I must admit, I feel somewhat guilty. I relish reading their news and updates, seeing their photos and sharing in those women's lives without giving up any details about my own.

My baby girl, my little miracle, turned ONE a few weeks ago. This has been the most incredible year of our lives. Becoming parents - and even more than that, becoming HER parents - has brought us so much unimaginable joy. We just look at her and our hearts swell. We are so thankful for the way God orchestrated the three of us to be a family.

She is now walking, talking (okay, so it is all babble at this point... we really don't have any consistent use of words yet!) and learning so many things! It really just gets more fun every day seeing the world through her eyes. So much to explore and learn and play! Our days are truly filled with little adventures and I'm having the best time staying home with her.

Along the way, we've also gotten other surprises. March, in fact, not long after I last posted, is when the really big news came. The big surprise. The one that several of the bloggers I read have experienced, but that I never counted on for myself. The one that everybody said "would happen" - and that drove me crazy.

Our adopted miracle was a little more than 5 months old when I found out I was pregnant.

And our world has been in a tailspin ever since!

Well, that's not quite true. The beginning was disbelief, fear, caution... which after a few months led to excitment and thankfulness... and here we are, 30 weeks in, expecting a baby boy in November, a little brother to our princess!

I can say with certainty that my faith has grown by leaps and bounds during my time as a wife. I prayed for a long time for the man I now share my life with, who loves and supports me, makes me laugh, and gives his family his all. I remember us so innocently "deciding" we were ready to start our family after 2 years of marriage, and being so excited for a baby that would certainly soon be on the way. I can look back at the three years we suggered from infertility and miscarriages and pain and remember what God did for us in the dark times. I can rejoice that He was always present, always sovereign, always working out His plan. I can thank Him in the light that we find ourselves in now, holding our daugther in our arms and expecting our son, and know still He is present, He is sovereign and He is working out His plan.

If only we had known all this at the time, it wouldn't have hurt as much. But we wouldn't be as thanful for it now. I am praying always for those who find themselves there too.