If you've been following my blog long enough, you've heard about the tragedy that we went through in 2011 when we miscarried our son, Brooks. If you missed it, here's the link to the original post: Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right. That was a really hard, sad time.
When we found out that I was pregnant with Anna, we were overjoyed! We couldn't believe that out of all days, it was exactly one year after I found out I was pregnant with Brooks. Here's that link: Coming in February 2013.
Then, we had a very emotional 4 month appointment for Anna exactly one year from the date of the same appointment for Brooks, where we learned that we lost him. We couldn't help but give praise to God when Anna's heartbeat was going strong. For extended details, see Rejoicing in the Lord.
And now, I am happy to share with all my readers that Anna was providentially born on Brooks' due date! Again, one year later.
We serve an awesome God that is sovereign over all. It is no coincidence that all of these dates lined up! Although Anna doesn't take the place of Brooks, we can't help but think of this as a special gift from the Lord. God has certainly been redeeming all our sad dates with happy ones.
We tried to put a lot of thought into Anna's name. Anna means "a woman graced with God's favor." We also named her "Hope," which means "one who has high expectations through faith." I recently heard in a sermon that hope is the "grand finale of suffering."
And yes, that is exactly what Anna is -
A baby that we had high expectations that God would give us because of his amazing grace and mercy to us.
A baby graced with God's favor and the answer to our prayers after all the suffering from losing Brooks.
We pray, as one of our friends recently said, that the Lord would give her grace both to know Him and to live up to both of her names all her days.
