Our Family of 3

A few days before Cole made his appearance my incredibly talented sister offered to take some family pictures to capture our last days of being just the 3 of us. I am so glad we spent the time to document our family while we were in transition. My sister and I were talking, which was sparked by an article she read, about taking pictures while pregnant. In the article the mother mentions the importance of taking the pregnancy pictures, not for right now but 20 years from now. This lady lost one of her children and when she was looking back in her files she didn’t have 1 picture of her when she was pregnant; she thought there might have been one that her husband snapped in passing, but after searching for an hour she still couldn’t find it.

Pregnancy is such a miraculous time. The Lord places a life inside of your body and grows it to completion; what and incredible way that the Lord chose for us to enter this world. As a mom, there are many sweet times of feeling the baby move, watching your tummy grow, hearing the heart beat, seeing the ultra sound, and then finally being in labor and holding your sweet sweet child that the Lord prepared for your family. There is so much anticipation, joy, unknown, and preparation that happens during that 9 months. The Lord refines and makes ready the mother’s heart and body for this life that will forever change yours.

Along with the beauty of pregnancy, there also comes a few changes that aren’t always the most beautiful, yet miraculous in their own way. Not fitting into clothes, feeling cumbersome, swelling, the crazy things the hormones do to your body, trying to roll over in bed, shave your legs or put together an outfit that is somewhat presentable are a few challenges that sometimes rear their ugly face and it is easy to let them steal your joy. One way that it can do that is a lack of desire to have your picture taken. For me, I don’t really have a desire to remember what I looked like when I am larger than I have ever been in my entire life and I look like a train wreck when I don’t wear an outfit, put on makeup and do my hair.

How selfish! The Lord has given me a CHILD and all I can think about is how it is adversely affecting me and what I feel like doing. It is always fun to look back of pictures of my mom when she was pregnant and see the fashion, how young she was, and what they were doing in that season of life. Pregnancy is such a short season of life, although it seems like it is forever. I catch my self thinking that I am going to have this massive belly for the rest of my life, and am destined to live in knit pants forever never to wear a pair of stylish jeans with no elastic ever again. Heels? forget it. But it is not so. Labor will come and go, soon you will be home holding your baby and the pregnancy will be over. It is good to savor each day the Lord brings because we don’t know how it will end, what tomorrow will hold, and what the future looks like. It has only been 3 weeks and I already love to look back at the pictures we took and remember how we felt, the anticipation of meeting Cole, when he would arrive, feeling him move, and the days when we only had Madeline. Enjoy these pictures, they have been a joy to my heart already, the swelling in my body has already started to go down and I am so glad I have a few pictures of my last few days of pregnancy.

My challenge to you is whatever season you are in… if you love it, hate it, can’t wait for it to end, want it to stay the same forever, or never thought you would end up where you are, document it. Even if you hate your outfit, wish you were in better shape, wish you loved somewhere else, wish your weren’t single, thought you would have a better job, or just don’t like your hair cut. Write it down, take a picture, update your status, whatever. Just acknowledge that this season is happening, try to enjoy it and find a reason to be thankful; it won’t be like this forever. And it you do love the season, praise the LORD for it and document it all the more. The party, wedding, shower, event, vacation, home, job situation, age of your children, current fashion trend, or family status will not last forever, even if it feels like it. Rejoice in the glory that is today. It will end sooner than you know and then it’s gone and on to the next. Life moves fast, please don’t miss it, it is far too glorious.