Our "Night Star"

We are having a girl! It makes it seem so much more real knowing this. We are so excited to be having a precious little girl and love talking about "her" instead of "baby" :) It is hard thinking about having to say goodbye to her, and my heart breaks when I think of all the special moments we are going to miss if she goes home to the Lord, but we are trying to treasure the moments we have with her now. When Drew and I were talking about baby names I really wanted to pick a name that had a special meaning-I love it when you hear a name and then learn the amazing meaning behind it. After a lot of searching, agreeing and disagreeing, we finally decided on Layla Esther. Layla means "night" and Esther means "star", and for us it just fit. Also, Layla is the name of the orphanage I was blessed to help with in Ethiopia, so that made her name that much more special.

Before we knew we were having a girl we had Layla Esther picked out, but the only people who knew were our family and a few friends.  Our dear friend Alison was already working on a quilt (gender neutral) for baby and sent me a picture of it to see what I thought (she lives in South Dakota and was going to mail it to us when she finished). At this point I had not mentioned the name to her. When I saw the picture, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing-it was covered in a dark blue fabric with stars! It was as if the Lord was saying "you are having a girl, and I haven't forgotten her-I love her and know every detail about her." Then a few weeks later when we found out that we were having a girl, I wasn't surprised. God had shown up through our friend and reminded us that He knows our Layla. It is so incredible to me how even when we don't necessarily feel God speaking to us sometimes, He can speak to others about us and use them to remind us of His presence. What an amazing Savior we have that cares enough to speak to us through the details of our lives-a quilt, a name, etc...

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name." -Psalm 147:3-4

Love,
Kristina