and Avery Makes Three: butterfly kisses

He's here! He's here! I can't stop feeling silly for how crazy I was about wanting Avery to get here sooo badly. It's literally most of all I thought about - I found myself praying constantly for patience and for my heart to be obedient to what God has for me and not just what I was coveting. I would tell Jake a lot that no matter how long it took, soon we would be holding our baby boy but it seemed to be taking foreverrrr. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I would put "go into labor" on my to-do list and I would rehearse for what I was going to say to Avery the very first time I was face-to-face with him.

And now he is already ten days old. Ten super fast, super tiring days and I have no idea where the time has gone. I talked to my sister-in-law not long ago about how time goes seems to pass by so slowly with a baby in your belly, but so quickly when they're in your arms. I couldn't possibly comprehend how true that is until sweet baby Avery was in my arms.

But he has arrived. And now I'll never be the same person again. Being a mom is the sweetest, most incredible, most heart wrenching, most beautiful thing I have ever experienced (and it's only been 10 days). There have been a lot of hard things going on in the past 10 days - adjusting to a crazy sleep schedule, having family and visitors 24 hours a day (which makes developing any kind of a normal schedule impossible), dealing with the aftermath of giving birth (both body image issues and the pains associated with childbirth), coping with breastfeeding, and yes, baby blues are incredibly real. But I was with my husband looking at how perfect our baby angel is and he said that now he knows that this is what life is about. And I couldn't agree more. I thank God that he has allowed this little miracle in our lives (because it is infinitely more than we could ever deserve) to teach us about His love for us and to remind us about where our priorities lie.

I am so excited about beginning this journey and so blessed to have the most amazing, loving husband to walk beside me in it. The Lord's ways are SO MUCH bigger and more beautiful and more perfect than our own. My ten day old son is already teaching me that (and I have a feeling he is going to be teaching Jake and me a whole lot more than that in the days and years to come). I just pray that with every breath Jake and I will point him towards Jesus.

Here are a few highlights of the past ten days of Avery's life and the beginning of the journey of a lifetime: