My Sweet Girl

Last week I took a few pictures of my sweet girl in the backyard, now 13 months old. They said it would happen, the time would fly -- and they were right. Here are a few of my faves.

tmm

Christmas festivities

Anyone who knows me knows I love Christmas. I love the food, the traditions, the trees, the lights, the baking, the real meaning.... all of it! Today was our work Christmas lunch. Annie and I traveled downtown with Nate for a day at the office, aka an excuse to see and catch up with everyone. Annie did great and got to see her old friends. I enjoyed seeing everyone, too.
tmm

Endings, Beginnings, and Change

Today begins a new chapter in my life. In our lives as a family. Yesterday was my last day of full-time employment.

It is a decision I made - it was not forced upon me - but if you know me at all, you know how much I hate change. (Strangely, I rather like change of the coin-sort. Go figure.) It is the right decision for me, right now. I do not regret it, but I will miss my coworkers, my friends, my family... those whom I've worked with for over 13 years and love, whom I've celebrated with and cried with. I will still have a connection with them, working part-time from home, but it won't be the same. 

But it's the right decision.

And my reward is to see this sweet face each day.

tmm

First day at school

Today we went to my sister's new classroom to help her set it up. She will be teaching 5th grade this year. Yay! I'm so excited for this school year for her.

Annie got her first view inside the classroom of any kind and seemed to enjoy it. She didn't care for the chair so much, but was getting a grasp on grammar. You can see her contemplating the best helping verbs to use in her workbook. Watch out, world!

tmm

Final Weeks of My Pregnant Life

Here are the final weeks of my pregnancy. (I didn't realize how big I was until I looked at these pictures.) As you can see, I didn't make it to 40 weeks. But I thought it'd be fun to continue the pictures to the end. Annabel "Annie" Wren McMillan was born May 22 at 10:12pm CT. She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 20-1/2 inches long.

Weeks 37-40

tmm

A Prayer for My Daughter before She is Born

I pray that as this little one is born into this world as my daughter,

so too she would be born a second time as Yours.

I pray that as I will be her father from cradle to the grave,

so too You would be her Father for eternity.

I pray that as she grows inside of her mother,

so too she would grow in the knowledge of Your word.

I pray that as her mother has carried her for these past months,

so too You would carry her all the days of her life.

I pray that as she moves inside the womb,

so too Your Spirit would move in her heart and mind.

I pray that as her mortal life has begun,

so too her eternal life would begin with her faith in Jesus Christ.

I pray that as she begins to become aware of the world around her,

so too she would become aware of her need for a Savior.

I pray that as she comes to understand our love for her,

so too she would understand Your love poured out on the cross.

I pray that as You have given her to me,

so too she would give herself to You.

I pray that my child, O Father, would become Your child.

I pray that my daughter might one day become Yours.

nwm

Maternity Pictures

In our cooler-than-normal spring, we took advantage of the first almost-warm-enough-to-be-outside-without-a-jacket day and went to the Chicago Botanic Garden to take some maternity pictures at 33 weeks. It was a fairly casual shoot since it was just the two of us (three of us?). I was even able to convince the father-to-be to join me in a few.



 

 

 Warming up inside one of the tropical greenhouses also provided some good shots.

Our attempt to have a picture of me with a bird nest

tmm