August 11th

Today is August 11th, and it's just one of those days where I have happy memories and think "God is cool". Two of my very favorite days just happened to occur on August 11th, so I'll always look at the calendar and smile when this day rolls around. 

August 11, 2014 is the day we found out we were pregnant with Taylor Grace. It's a day that forever changed my life and the day our parenting journey officially started! It started out as a normal Monday and ended with Parker and I staring at a positive pregnancy test in disbelief. We were pregnant... whatttt?! We were thrilled, scared out of our minds, and everything in between that day. I didn't even plan to take a pregnancy test that morning, but Parker was painting furniture in the house, and we were worried about the paint fumes if I happened to be pregnant. To ease our concerns, I took a test just to be safe. And then it was positive. And then our lives changed forever. A very happy day indeed!

Fast forward 2 years on August 11, 2016, and I am about 12 weeks pregnant with our second little miracle. Since I was considered high risk from my pregnancy with Taylor Grace, I had the genetic testing done a week prior to make sure this baby was healthy. We would also get to find out the gender from this test, but more than anything, we just wanted a healthy baby. They told me the genetic counselor would call with the results sometime in the next 10 days, and what do you know, my phone rang on August 11th. I cannot tell you how anxious I was, but being told "everything looks great- you're baby is perfectly healthy" will forever be one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. I wanted to find out the gender with Parker, who was deployed at the time, so I handed the phone to my twin sister so she could write down the gender for me. She did, and I was able to Facetime Parker just minutes after. I held up the piece of paper, and we both saw we were having a BOY! Oh my goodness, so many tears of joy followed. August 11, 2016 will forever be one of my favorite days.

 

Going from the heartbreak of losing our first baby, a journey that started on August 11th, to finding out our second baby was a perfectly healthy baby boy exactly two years later is just cool. God is just cool like that, and it feels like everything has come full circle. I am spending August 11, 2017 snuggling and caring for my 5 month old baby, and the miracle of that very fact is not lost on me.