The Birth Story, Part 1: Isabella Grace

***But, first, don't forget to put down an entry for the caption contest!!! The winner gets a Starbucks giftcard! Entries accepted until this Thursday, 9pm, pst. ***

What would you use as a caption for this picture of my niece, Sonoma, holding Isabella Grace?



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Now, my birth story, in bits and pieces, because it's my blog and I can make you wait if I want to...

I couldn't believe that this handsome, tall, not so dark, super intelligent, and ambitious man loved me. ME! From the moment that the Holy Spirit made it clear that Tim was to be my husband some day, I started to envision our future children. Isabella was on my heart already.

Once Timmy went away to law school in Washington, D.C, we started to spend countless hours on the phone. We talked about everything. Our hopes, desires, and what we dreamed for our future together. We weren't even engaged at this point, but we talked about baby names. "If it is a boy, how about Matthew, like your middle name?", I said to Timmy. "And if it is a girl, I love the name Isabella." He loved it, too. I had loved that name since I was 18 and read a book about a girl that lived in Italy with the same name. She was a beautiful girl with dark skin and long dark hair, and darker eyes. I guess that is why I always imagined our Isabella the same way. We talked about middle names. Tim and I thought that Grace sounded so beautiful with Isabella. So, our hearts desire for Isabella Grace began 10 years ago.

Tim and I really did not care if we had a little girl or a little boy every time we became pregnant. We really had no desire towards either gender. However, the only gender on which we agreed on a name, from back before we were ever even engaged, was for a little girl. And since we never would find out the gender, I would always bring a ziploc bag with boy things and girl things to the hospital. Each time, I would have to pull out the 'blue' bag and put the 'pink' ziploc back in the Isabella Grace box we had started 10 years before, too. (We had bought a baby gift for a friend that thought she was having a girl, had a boy, and Tim said we should just keep the little girl outfit for when we had our first daughter... this outfit became the first item in the Isabella Grace box.) And since we usually could not agree or settle on a boy name, we would spend those last couple of hours in prayer, and deep discussion about what we should name this new little man in our life. We weren't disappointed that it was another boy, but would laugh that we always had a girl name, but never a girl.

What joy I was experiencing with my older son and daughter and my 3 little guys. Sheer joy! However, Tim and I knew that God could very well bless us again soon. At this point I think I was secretly desiring a little girl. A little girl that was half Timmy, half me. Everyone knew that this was Karizma's deepest desire and had been for many years.. to have a little sister. Tim started to talk about having a little girl, too. I became pregnant for the 7th time and the 'girl' desires became very, very, very much a part of each of our hearts. Tim started to ask anyone willing to listen, including my blogger friends, to pray for a little girl. What a sweet answer to prayer it was on Christmas Eve when the sonogram technician told us that was exactly what we were expecting. It was instantly that we started to call her by name. Isabella Grace was no longer just a desire in our hearts, she was now a dream come to life.