Jake and I are so happy to say that our sweet daughter, August Adele, is now two months old and doing very well! The transition of having a new life in our home has been packed full of love and learning. When we found out we were expecting we were thrilled. The creation of new life is amazing and is a strong reminder of how God works beautifully within this world. As some of you may know, shortly after finding out I was pregnant, my sister's son, Jackson, passed away suddenly at the age of four. The past seven months have been a whirlwind of emotions. On one hand we are grieving the loss of a beautiful life and on the other we are celebrating a new one. Trying to reconcile those two extremes has not been easy, especially being so far away from my family. These two significant events in my life have caused me to ask deep questions about faith and how God works in this world.
The life-long journey of learning more about who our Father is didn't start with the loss of my nephew or the birth of our child and it won't end there either but it has made an impact on me. Now that I am a mom, there are certain things about God I understand better. One of those things is how Jesus in Matthew tells us to "Pray like this: Our Father in heaven..." Jesus could have told us to call God anything but he says to call him Father. That is so significant in my mind now that I am a parent. The love I have for August is indescribable and if Jesus wants us to view God as our Father, then I think part of that is an understanding that His love for us is deeper than we can imagine. August is so little and completely dependent on us right now and I want to protect her and provide for her. If God is our Father he must want that for us too. August doesn't always know what's best for her so she has to trust us.
So I won't begin to say that I understand life and death and all the hard things that happen during our time here on earth. But, I do now know first-hand the love and good will parents have for their children. I know that our Father is taking care of me, He's taking care of my sister and brother-in-law thousands of miles from here, and He's still, even now, taking care of sweet Jackson.