27 Weeks

POP goes the Momma.... literally, I feel huge. I mean, not that people didn't know I was pregnant for some time now, but there is absolutely NO denying it anymore. It is like all of the sudden everything is growing. You are definitely carrying much different than Eleanor did.... with her, I pretty much kept my size with the exception of my belly and a little swelling at the end. With YOU, BR #2, I am expanding everywhere... yikes. To know I still have 12 more weeks is a little intimidating, if you ask me!

This week we celebrated your Daddy's 33rd birthday - he is now in his mid-thirties... which honestly, is CRAZY to Momma. There are so many days where I feel like just a moment ago I was in college, high school even... often I still feel like I act like a teenager, but alas... your parents really are grownups. It was a pretty laid back week, and birthday for him, spent with family and his best friends - for Momma, that meant a lot of Eleanor time... I'll take it. Soon when you get here, there will be a major shift in her and I's world (especially because of the fact that I won't be able to pick up Eleanor for 6 weeks). It will be the best change ever, albeit a little sad and confusing for her, for sure. Good thing is she will not remember it and with you, we will all be better for it!

BR #2, believing that you will chose Christ at an early age, we pray that you mourn the sin that still creeps in... the fact of the matter is, you will not be perfect. Momma and Daddy are not perfect and will never pretend to be. There is no one you will meet on this earth that is perfect... and that is OKAY. You DON'T have to be perfect. Period. We will never expect that of you, but more importantly please know that is not what God expects of you. He KNOWS you aren't perfect, so His Son paid the penalty for our imperfections. We do, however, have the opportunity to chose to submit to the inner workings of his Holy Spirit to flee from the desire to sin... not that we always will, but oh that you would mourn when you fall. (Oh that Momma and Daddy mourn when we fall... praying that over us, too). Not because it is expected of us to be perfect, but because you desire to bring glory to God by your freedom from sin, through His Son. There are going to be struggles you will encounter, for sure... rely on the Spirit to redeem you from the sin that so easily entangles. Pursue righteousness, hate sin, find life.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

2 Corinthians 7:10 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.