Eight Months!

My Sweet Baby,

Eight months, I can just hardly believe it. Where has the time gone? They say it happens, they warned me, told me to prepare myself, to soak in every second because it would be gone in a flash....but really nothing could have made me believe it aside from experiencing it myself. The last eight months have just absolutely flown by, but I've been left with some of the sweetest memories that I'll cherish always. Our lives are better because you are in it.

You have been such a joy. I don't know any other way to describe it. And it's not just your Daddy and I or even your family who will says so, but complete strangers. We were at a restaurant last week and an older couple was sitting at a table close to ours. They got up to leave and the husband stopped for a second to tell us how cute you were. His wife was close behind and she stopped for several minutes to say "hello" and get a close up of you. As she stroked your hair, she went on to say that they had been watching you and were just taken with, even trying to imagine what you might say if you could talk as you played with your toys and reached for the glasses and other things on the table. I'm not sure you have met a stranger yet. You really do bring so much joy to everyone you are around!

You have your first two teeth that are popping through on the bottom. You have been a trooper! It's so strange to feel those sharp little things in your mouth, I can only imagine what it must feel like to you. I catch you often trying to figure it out, often rubbing your tongue over and over them.

You are sitting up so well now, in fact so well that you can't figure out how to get out of the sitting position! Once you get over onto your side or back, you can roll around with the best of them to get what you want. Still no crawling, but I imagine you are not too far away from figuring it out. You have made a few backward movements and you can do a little slithering on your stomach. I can't imagine you as a mobile baby, but I probably need to get ready because I'm sure it's coming!

I've cried a lot over the last few days, leading up to your eight month birthday. A family that I don't even know lost their precious eleven month old baby girl, her name was Cora. Her mama kept a blog just like me. From the beginning their story looked much like ours, a happy little family of three. A mama and daddy that loved each other and loved their baby girl more than life itself. Their story took a different path when Cora was diagnosed with cancer and a short two weeks later she was gone. There is hope in the story though, they loved Jesus and the Bible tells us that Cora is resting in His arms now. She's renewed and whole and perfect again. Her story has been heard around the world and because of her short life, lives have been impacted and people have been forever changed.

For so many reasons their story felt so relevant to me, but in large part because when I looked into Cora's big, pretty eyes, at her sweet smile, her soft brown hair and her chubby cheeks......I saw you. My own precious baby girl. Cora went to be with Jesus the very day that we had you baptized, the day that we committed your life to the Lord and that we committed to honor Him in the way that we bring you up. The Lord is teaching me great things and one day I'll share with you even more about the stirrings of my heart leading up to your eight month Birthday. We'll never know sweet baby Cora, this side of heaven, but she has impacted my life and ultimately yours in great ways. I've played with you harder, hugged you tighter, kissed you more often and I'm trying to love you more freely than I did before.

Every night when I put you to bed, I tell you that Zephaniah 3:17 says "The Lord your God is with you; He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love and He will rejoice over you with singing". And then I tell you that Mama loves you, Daddy loves you and Jesus loves you.

You are one loved baby girl!

Mama

**This is the only dress that I have that was once mine. One day I'll give it to you for your baby to wear!