Nan

We are so excited to announce that George is going to have a little sister in August!  I can hardly wrap my brain around the fact that we are going to have a little girl join our family soon.  I knew this pregnancy had been so different than with George, but I just felt like we would have a little brother for sure.  Now George has learned that 'Baby Sissy' is who is inside mommy's tummy.  It's pretty sweet to hear him talk about Sissy.

My mom was so excited that she started to get out some of my first dance costumes- I can't wait to see Frannie and Nan playing in these costumes in the coming years!

We've named her Jane Ann Cochran, and we're going to call her Nan.  She is named for her two amazing grandmothers, who, no doubt, will have an incredible impact on her life in the years to come.  Since both of our mothers have unusual names (Zolinda Cochran and Satyra Howell) we opted to use the combination of their two beautiful middle names- Jane from the Cochran side and Ann from the Howell side.  I love that Nan will truly know the women for whom we named her.  Both of her namesakes are women of faith, strength, and selfless and unconditional love, and we pray that Nan will follow in their footsteps.

We ask for your prayers over Nan, and over us, throughout the coming months.  We ask that you pray for her health and development.  More than ever, we have seen what a miracle the Lord gives us in new life.  It is one of the greatest ways that He shows His power, His intimacy, and His sovereignty in this life, and we know that He is knitting our daughter together in His beautiful image.  I was talking with a friend about how parenthood can either be wrought with worry and anxiety, or it can lead to a new depth of clinging to the Lord.  We have learned more about the latter in the last few days, and Clay and I are so thankful for it.  We have learned that strength is not the absence of emotions, but it is seeking the Lord in the realness of those emotions.  And He has met us there every single time.  

I don't mean to be dramatic, but I also want to be real about what we've gone through in the last four days.  We are so totally in love with our little Nan already, and know that the Lord is very much present in our little house, in our little growing family.  We will be going to a follow-up ultrasound in a week and a half to see Nan again, and we are praying that she is continuing to grow in a healthy way.  We ask that you pray for her, too.  

The words of this hymn have been the prayer of my heart, and have brought me so much comfort.  I especially love the last verse, and love the thought that the Lord pleads for me, and for Nan.  

"God of my life, to Thee I call,

Afflicted at Thy feet I fall;

When the great water floods prevail

Leave not my trembling heart to fail.

Poor though I am, despised forgot

Yet God, my God, forgets me not;

And He is safe, and must succeed for whom

The Lord is sure to plead.

Friend of the friendless and the faint,

Where should I lodge my deep complaint?

Where but with Thee, whose open door

Invites the helpless and the poor!

That were a grief I could not bear,

Didst Thou not hear and answer prayer;

But a prayer hearing, answering God

Supports me under every load."