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.

A Baby Flood

I thought I'd be lucky to get one baby shower, but God has truly blessed us by giving us a grand total of 4!  I think I can officially say that all these showers created a flood.  Here are snippets from all 3 of my Savannah showers:

Anne can't wait for Baby McD to come!

My church family at Grace Church of the Islands threw me a huge one.  It was so encouraging to see how so many ladies in our church took care of our expanding family by giving us so many baby items that we will need to welcome our baby girl into this world.

This shower was a brunch and this was some of the spread.  I loved the diaper bouquet as the centerpiece!

I had several younger girls assisting me with the opening of gifts.  They were a big help!

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Next up, I had a shower at my work, Mathnasium.  My co-worker, Rachel, was the one who did most of the work for it.  Look at her yummy baby carriage cake!  It was made of funfetti cake, one of my favorites.

My boss says that our baby will be the first "Mathnasium Baby."  As you can see, they decorated it accordingly.  I'm wearing a little sash that says "Mommy-to-be."  It was a smaller shower, but I had so much fun!  They focused on giving me very practical gifts, which I definitely will need once she makes her appearance.

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Lastly, I had a Paris-themed shower for friends that I've gotten to know in Savannah that aren't a part of my church family or work.  The invitations were super cute and said "Ooh La La," and Laura did a great job of including that into her decorations.  Look at this spread!  It was beautiful!

Once again, I had some helpers - these twin girls helped me determine which gifts to open.  :)

I got a pretty good bump shot at this shower - they gave me a boa to go along with the parisian theme.  I was about 34.5 weeks pregnant in this.

All my showers were so much fun!  I have just been blown away by all of the love and support that I've received from all these sweet ladies that have touched my life over the past 3.5 years in Savannah.  I've now begun the task (with a lot of help from my mom) of putting the nursery together.  It is coming along and I think I am in the middle of nesting! 

Florida Baby Shower

My lovely mother and a few church family friends threw me my first baby shower in Orange Park.  They did a wonderful job!

A nice welcome sign for me and our little girl.  I am about 27.5 weeks here.

The decorations were super cute!  Note: the daisy flower pots were actually part of the decorations for my wedding reception!

These were chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing.  Super yummy! The flags on the top of the cakes say "baby girl."

My mom (and dad) put together a diaper cake with little flower barrettes all over them.  I can't wait to put little barrettes and bows in her hair!

Our little girl is going to be all set!

My sweet cousin, Elle, was my helper and told me which gifts to open first.

I thought this was a sweet candid shot with us talking together.

One of my favorites - my parents gave me her first Florida Gator outfit with matching bows.  You can tell that I'm just delighted. :)  So was Curtis.

This was a huge box of clothes that my parents got me.  All sorts of outfits in varying sizes!

As you can see, I spent most of my time opening gifts.

Here's the audience.  I had a vast assortment of sweet family and friends that I've known throughout my life there with me to celebrate.

My cousin Jane was able to meet our newest cousin, Alan, for the first time.

Jane did so many things behind the scenes for the shower.  She took most of the pictures and helped me organize all my gifts to travel back to Savannah. :)

Here are two of my childhood friends, Carrie and Kimberly.  We used to hang out all the time when we were in elementary/middle/some high school!

Two of my closest friends from high school/community college, Jennifer and Pam, were also able to make it.

I even had three of my closest friends from UF there - Kelly, Catherine & Jenna!  (Jenna's not pictured because she had already left the shower by the time we took this one.)

Here's some of my wedding party - Catherine (bridesmaid), Lacey (flower girl), Mrs. Warren (matron of honor).

This was a fun one - I had 4 other pregnant ladies at my shower.  Robyn, seminary friend; Carrie, neighborhood friend; Lauren, church friend; and Ashlee, high school friend (not pictured).  Lauren actually delivered her baby girl, Violet Rose, on 12/12/12!

I had a great time and I couldn't believe how quickly the shower flew by!  I have been blessed with lots of dear family and friends at this shower - some came very long ways to be there!  Thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate this blessing from the Lord with me.  We can't wait for her to arrive!

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! :)

Coming in February 2013

Yes, it is true!  God has answered our prayers and we are excited to announce that we will be having a baby next year.  We praise the Lord for his faithfulness to us.  What a blessing!

Ironically, I found out that I was pregnant exactly one year later to the day that I found out that I was pregnant with Brooks.  My due date is February 27; Brooks' due date was February 23.  The challenging part is not to fear that we will lose this one also.  I am going through each month just as far along as I was with Brooks, which makes me worried about the month of September since that is when we lost him.  When I begin to fear, I am trying to spend time in prayer knowing that the Lord is in control.  Curtis and I believe that God is redeeming all the sad dates from our loss with happy ones from this new baby.  Please pray with us that our baby would be healthy.  We look forward to finally having an earthly child!

 12 Week Appointment

Updates

 1. Sweet Pea - We had 4 sweet weeks with her before we had to send her back to her foster home on August 1st.  Unfortunately, she was too young to run around the house when we were away (she'd chew everything up) and we had no way of containing her.  We don't have a fenced-in backyard and she was smart enough to figure out how to break out of two different crates!  We hated to send her back, but we realized that she needed a home where she would have more people around and she wouldn't have to be cooped up in a crate as much.  We felt like we were torturing her!  Curtis and I keep remembering fun memories with her, but we realized that she probably wasn't the best dog for us with the "bun" coming. (See #3)

2. My Job - On August 5, I worked my last day at work.  It was a hard decision to make, but I am confident that Curtis and I made the best choice for our family.  The main reason for leaving was because of a conviction that Curtis and I had about the company itself.  We prayed about it for almost a year before we got to a point where we realized I needed to leave.  (Note: If you are interested in knowing more about this, I am happy to share, but I'd rather share one-on-one than to type in a blog post.)  A secondary reason for leaving was because of Curtis' need for me to help him around the house while he takes on more responsibility at work.  The senior pastor of our church is deployed as a Chaplain in the military, so Curtis is the only pastor at our church until November.  Even though I knew about #3, it wasn't the reason why I left.  It just further confirmed that I needed to go.  I am now beginning week 3 of not working and I am really enjoying it!  I think I was really burned out!  The only downside is that I miss the people that I worked with.

3. Our "Bun" - Yes, in case you didn't understand the post below, Curtis and I are expecting our first baby on February 23, 2012.  We are excited and nervous!  I am about 13.5 weeks pregnant today and Baby McD is doing well.  I am looking forward to getting out of the first trimester in the hopes that I will have more energy and I won't be getting as nauseated when I smell certain things!  We plan on finding out the sex of our baby on October 5th.