After my trip to a second world country I realized how full my life was....to overflowing! And this was one of the things that got eliminated. I continued to homeschool our boys and make a go of my photography business, but dropped some things that seemed to be overwhelming burdens that just weren't necessary to have in my life!
Since that time much has happened and God has worked amazingly in our lives!!!
Almost 2 years ago I wrote briefly in a blog post about having longed for a daughter for years. As I said in that post, I'd gained peace over being blessed with all boys and grateful for my family just the way it was.
I loved the specialness of having all boys and felt that our family of seven was "perfect"!
My "baby" was potty trained, old enough to feed and dress himself, and I was enjoying having "older" children. You see, I've always been a baby lover and if I didn't have one of my own at the time, then I needed to be holding someone else's if possible! I just couldn't imagine having my LAST baby!!! How do people do that?! Well fast forward some more and I was there. I LOVED my new found freedom in having a little older children. So for three years I lived my life FINALLY in peace with God's best for our family......but He had a special surprise for us!
In August of last year we realized that we'd be expecting more laundry come next April!!!
....definitely wasn't in our plans and it took a good long time to get used to the idea of having another little person in our home! And as for hoping for a boy or girl, I was for the first time, on the fence! I was thankful it wasn't up to me to decide what we were having!!!! Another boy would keep things nice and simple and obviously I know how to do boys. On the other hand, a girl would be a fun, new, and exciting adventure, but would also change our lives in many ways!
My pregnancy was exactly like all the others, just more sever symptoms.....I'm not in my 20's anymore! :) Ha! I survived the morning sickness and mostly breezed through the second trimester. However the last stretch brought months of groin/pubic pain that gradually got worse to the point that my hubby was taking me grocery shopping and I was doing only what had to be done. I was too proud to ride around in a motored cart at Walmart and instead walked painfully slow everywhere I went! It didn't matter if I was sitting, standing, or walking, it just plain hurt. Thankfully though the pain wasn't unbearable, more of a dull ache, with occasional grinding....yuck! I did a LOT of sitting towards the end until the last couple weeks. At that point I'd had it with being sedentary and I just got up and went and tried to ignore it as best I could.
Here are a few lovely iPhone pictures of my progress...
The last one was taken two days before delivery.
Rewind to December at my 22 week ultrasound. I told the tech we wanted to find out what we were having and she immediately went to see if she could tell. No sooner did I have the words out of my mouth when she says, "it's a girl" very matter of factly.......wait!.............what did she just say....a GIRL?! Was she talking to us?!? Is she 100% sure??????? Tears slipped down my face and once I could talk around the lump in my throat, I asked her to check again just to be certain. Upon learning that we had five boys she gladly headed back down to confirm that yes, undoubtedly there was a little girl in there!
I will never forget that feeling of shock, amazement, thankfulness, and EXCITEMENT!!!! I'd given up my dream three years earlier and now God had given us the ultimate surprise in His perfect timing!!!!
Here she is.....
Fast forward now to April 4 at 12:40 am and 38.2 weeks pregnant. I had recently gone to bed when I felt what I suspected to be my water breaking. What made it so surreal is that I had JUST prayed, "Lord please, could my water just break?" (My water has never broken until I'm pushing!) I was sooooooo over being pregnant and in pain. I was miserable physically, mentally, and spiritually! This baby couldn't be born soon enough....and it had nothing to do with her being a girl! So as you can imagine, I was quite shocked when my prayer was almost immediately answered! LOL!
A long story short, little miss was born after only 28 minutes of excruciating pain!!! It was a very fast and furious birth, typical of my others, but beat my previous fastest of 45 minutes!
Meet Myla Quinn! All 8 lbs. 8 ozs. of her!!! ....my biggest baby by 7 ounces!
She has captivated our hearts and is adored by all five of her big brothers!!!!! She is a miraculous gift, one I continue to thank God for daily! My heart is filled to overflowing and I feel so unworthy of such a blessing!!!!!!! God knew my heart and mind at it's ugliest and yet, when the time was right, He chose to bless us when we least expected it! God is like that! And He is good even when the answer is "no"!!!!
The story doesn't end there though! You see, she was born about 12 days before her due date and definitely an early baby! Two days later, a very special uncle was called home in a tragic, fatal accident. I am so grateful that we had this little sunshine during those dark days that followed!!!! She brought a ray of light to all of us, including my family that came from out of state and even to my grieving aunt.
So Myla's first week of life was filled with people bringing in food, family coming and staying at our house, and a huge viewing/calling and funeral. My two brothers and at that time, my brother's fiancé left after being here a week. My dad left a few days later and then my mom stayed a week beyond that. Once my mom left we had a week to regroup and absorb what all had really taken place over the past two weeks! Then a dear friend from Kansas (that I hadn't been with in years!) came with her little guy and stayed with us for about three days. Once she left we had another week to finish getting summer clothes pulled out and winter ones put away and to pack for our two week trip to Texas for my brother's wedding. We had a great time in Texas, specially being all together in one house!!!!
Whew!!!! Just reading all that makes me tired! Here we are two weeks later and I have a TWO MONTH OLD!!!! I'm so sad that it has flown by and I barely got to bask in the glow of having a newborn, but I am even more grateful, that I had my baby to hold through those sad, tough times and during the rejoicing, fun times!!! I think it's finally, truly sunk in.........we have a DAUGHTER! Praise the Lord!!!!!
I'm sure after reading all that, you can now understand why I don't have many "professional" pictures of little Myla! It's just been too crazy and she doesn't exactly enjoy the whole picture taking process!!!! Ha! But I'll share with you a few I do have from the past 2 months, including a lovely iphone snapshot or two. Enjoy and thanks for stopping back in! I can't promise though that I'll be back around any time soon! :) I'm a busy momma to SIX now.......wow that still sounds like such a big number!!!!
8 days new
Lots of protectors!!!!
1 day old!
Myla & Mommy (3 days old)
Daddy & Myla (10 days old)
Chubbing up and all broke out at 4 weeks. :(
Andrew, Myla, and I at my brother's wedding. (6 weeks old)
4 Generations!!!
Myla's 2 months pictures in an heirloom dress given to us by my grandma.
Yesterday's smily shot at 9 weeks old!
