Pregnancy: It's A...

Friday morning was our ultrasound! I was so excited in the days leading up to the big day. My parents came in Thursday night and spent the night with us. It was fun to catch up with them! We woke up on Friday morning and Will made all of us strawberry pancakes (he's the best pancake maker I know!).

Will and I headed to the doctor appointment while my parents watched Israel. I was really thankful for this because last time we took Israel with us, and it was hard to focus on what the doctor was saying (or really hear the heartbeat) when Israel was so distracting. This time, it was just us and it was really special. As soon as we got there, we went back to the ultrasound tech and she showed us our healthy baby! It was amazing to see how much the baby had grown since our 7 week ultrasound. The ultrasound tech soon told us the news we wanted to hear: it's a girl!

I cried when she told us the news. I've wanted a girl ever since we got pregnant. I don't know if it is just because we already have the COOLEST, cutest little boy we could ever parent, or the fact that I just want to have a little girl to connect with and teach and dress. The whole pregnancy, I would talk about our baby girl and we only had a girl name. I just couldn't settle on a boy name because I had such hope that it would be a girl. The Lord is so good, and even if we had been told it was a boy I would have been excited, but having a girl just seemed like such a blessing. We have the most perfect, adorable son ever and now he will have sister to love and protect. I'm so thrilled.

So, the name: Edith Joy!

Edith. We chose Edith a long time ago, after deciding that we wanted to name this child after someone. We thought carefully about Israel's name (read about it here) and wanted our other children to have intentional names as well. Our Edith is named after Edith Schaeffer. The Schaeffers were a missionary couple in Europe and Edith is an exemplary woman who is known for her hospitality, grace, selflessness, faith, and willingness to go or do anything so that others will know the truth of the gospel. Edith is a model of biblical womanhood, and we hope that our daughter will also be such a woman. She is also an author, and her book L'Abri (titled after the name of her home and ministry that she founded) was such an inspiration to me as I hope to keep an open home that will allow others to know Christ. 

Joy. Continuing the theme of naming after people, Joy was the name of C.S.Lewis's wife. Now, they were only married a brief time before she passed away, but Lewis's books and life have been influential (to say the least) to us and we love to honor him in our family as well. We also loved Joy because that is an attribute that we hope our Edith will portray. Not happiness, but joy found in Christ alone. Just as our son Israel's middle name means "blessed" we hope that our daughter's life will be a testimony of the joy we have through Christ.

Another fun fact is that after we told our family the name (we waited until we had official news of gender to share our name, just like we waited to share Israel's name until his referral) it turns out that I had a great- aunt Edith! She was a ballet teacher and secretary for the governor of Mississippi! I never met her, but it is fun that this is a family name too.

We are so thrilled about our new addition and feel overwhelmed with gratefulness for another blessing in our family. Thanks for rejoicing with us!