It's the Seventeenth Today

It's the seventeenth today. The sun is shining and it's a more beautiful February day than I can remember. And today I'd love to share with you the beauty of our first daughter Hannah Grace.

I pray that somehow these pictures are a blessing to you. These are the pictures of the sweet baby girl that made me a mother for the very first time. She was truly knit together by the Lord, even if one of those knots I could have lived without. She is Psalm 139:14; she is beautifully and wonderfully made. I want you to see that the Lord, knowing we would never see her alive, still made her beautiful. He is so good to us.

We've very carefully chosen the pictures we want to share. I'll let you know that if you're afraid of these pictures, don't worry, she looks more like a newborn baby who's sleeping than anything else. But I cannot promise you won't fall in love with her. I will not promise you that your eyes will remain dry, because sometimes Kyle and I were smiling and sometimes our hearts were aching and the pictures captured the truth of that room in ways I never imagined.

But today Kyle and I are proud parents. We long to show off our little girl to the many she never got to meet. To all the people who never got to hold her, who were maybe looking forward to it. I want them to see what the Lord made in our Hannah.

This is our Hannah Grace. This is her story.

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

Oh, Our Lord, He is good.

Note: I would like to share that we had one of my very best friends Jill take these pictures for us, I've spoken about her many times throughout Hannah's story. But my heart hurts when I think about the families who don't have pictures or who don't have a friend who is a professional photographer willing to spend countless hours in their hospital room to capture the last moments with their sweet baby. I did find an organization online called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep that helps connect families experiencing stillbirth or infant loss to photographers in their area who are willing to donate their services free of cost. I just wanted to share that for the families out there who may need this, or who don't even know at the time that they want it. I don't have personal experiences with this organization, but I hope maybe someone will benefit from me sharing their name. Because for me, these pictures are my prized possessions. Moments we'll never have again with our Hannah, so beautifully captured through the lens of someone very talented.