God's Sovereignty Through Anna

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.

Rejoicing in the Lord

Last Wednesday (9/12) was a very emotional day in the life of our family.  We were mourning Brooks because it was the one year anniversary since my 4 month appointment where we found out that I had a miscarriage and lost him.  Providentially, my 4 month appointment for our new baby fell on the same day one year later.  Talk about facing your fears!  We were trying not to get too anxious that this appointment could go the same way.  We prayed that we would trust in the Lord and that we would be able to glorify God, regardless of the outcome of that appointment.

With lots and lots of tears of joy, I am happy to announce that this appointment went much differently than the last one!  We rejoice and praise the Lord that He is redeeming our sad memories with happy ones.  Our  baby's heartbeat was found quickly and he/she had a strong heartbeat of 153 beats per minute.  It was so emotional as we went through the same motions that we did last year that I just couldn't help but cry.  Cry as I thought of Brooks, cry as I thought of our new little baby that is squirming around and alive!  The doctor even asked me "What's wrong? Everything looks good!"  

One of the verses that I have been loving is Psalm 100:5 - "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."  As we prepare for the next generation of McDaniels, we can't help but worship our Creator, knowing that His plans are always good, even if we don't understand them at the time.

We planned a visit with my parents that weekend in the hopes to celebrate with them after a good report.  I didn't realize how much I was waiting to get through that appointment before beginning to get excited about this little one!  It was fun to start planning things with my mom.  We watched the new movie "What To Expect When You're Expecting," we threw out ideas for our nursery, and we looked at baby stuff at Target & Once Upon A Child.  My mom plans to throw a baby shower for me in Jacksonville and we were able to start making a list of people to invite. 

Here we are looking at baby shower invitations.  We can't make a final decision on them until we know if our baby is a boy or a girl.  We will be finding this out on October 8!

We finished the day with eating at one of our favorite places in Savannah, Sweet Potatoes.  We had a great time and I think all four of us were able to relax and enjoy the weekend! :)

Praise! Curt's New Call

We are happy to announce that Curtis' father, Curt McDaniel, is now the Interim Senior Pastor of New Hope Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers, Florida.  We are so excited that he is living closer to us!  In fact, we hope to visit him during our anniversary trip to Florida in a few months.  We had the privilege to house him for a night on his way down to Fort Myers last week.  Here's the link to the church's announcement about my father-in-law.  This is an answer to prayer and we are praising the Lord for His provision to our family!