How Time Flies

            Only 10 more weeks until Charlottes due date!! Every day we get closer and closer to her impending delivery, and every day she is a little healthier and more stable should she indeed come early! As Alex and I prepare to move into our new little home in the next few weeks, we are beyond thankful with how God has protected us and provided for us! He really does have the perfect timing for everything. As much as we worry about our finances and the little things in life we cannot control we are blessed over and over again watching God open doors, and provide exactly what we need when we need it. I am so glad that we are not reliant upon ourselves.

             It is difficult for us to comprehend the fact that we are already approaching the beginning of November. It has been a long summer in many ways, but at the same time the days have flown by. At the beginning of this summer we weren't sure how things were going to work out with Alex's job, my health, our housing. We were certainly ill prepared for the complications we have had through the pregnancy, and the majority of unexpected expenses, or what doors God would open for us in Maine. We struggled spiritually, and emotionally but through it all God has blessed us above and beyond what we ever expected. We are growing everyday, though more than naughts it feels like we are back-sliding  down a muddy incline, only to wake up one day and suddenly see the sunrise over the mountain top. One of our greatest struggles this whole past year has been trying to figure out what God wants us to pursue and where He is leading us. We still don't have a clue, but we are realizing that we don't have to have it all put together and perfectly planned. All we can do today is give our best, work hard, pray for guidance and trust that God's plans are beyond our understanding.

           Since we learned that we were expecting our little girl, our perspective on life has completely changed. Part of us felt like we had to have everything put together, perfectly planned, all the wiser, organized, and matured by lengths we have yet to know. In so much, the first several months preparing for our baby we felt so hopeless; that our baby girl wouldn't have the parents we thought she deserved, that we would never measure up. We were already prepared to surrender as failures. Since then however, God has been teaching us and preparing us through the wisdom of friends and family and we are slowly accepting the fact that it is okay to be unprepared, naive and students of godly perspective. I assume that first time parents often feel that they have to 'perfect parenting' right from the get-go. We felt like we had to have all the answers, the perfect career plan, and the perfect home for our little girl.

         We will never have all the answers, and we will always have new things to learn, and we will inevitably fall short again and again. All we can do is give our very best, pray, pray, pray and pray!!! We are so excited to learn and grow and we are blessed to be able to walk through it together. Within the next few months our lives are going to pivot and completely change as we go from newly weds, to inexperienced parents! We finally feel ready. We are so ready to hold our baby girl and get in the grove of parenthood!

Love,
Leah