Makenna Ruth

My sister is a mommy!! I'm an aunt! Griffin is a first cousin! Ryan is an Uncle!

Thank you Matt and Janae for allowing me to be a part of your birth experience. I hope the pictures make it worth having me in the O.R. I am so grateful you let me witness the arrival of Miss Makenna. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Your family is beautiful.

Janae, you are AMAZING. You did so great! You tried so hard and your body just wouldn't cooperate. You are one of the strongest women I know and Makenna will be a strong woman because of you. I am so proud of you little sister!

And if you've never had or watched a c-section (or a vaginal bypass as the nurse called it), you have no idea what c-section survivors have gone through. Holy Moly. I'm glad I didn't go through that. They totally deserve our respect! That is one of the most brutal things I've seen. I would definitely pick my labor twice over as opposed to that.

Janae, you are a superstar!

And Makenna is BEAUTIFUL! Seriously, just stunning! I didn't know I would love my niece so much:)!

Hats

Wife. Mother. Friend. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Employee. Volunteer.

All different hats I wear. I'm sure you wear more than one as well. What I've been thinking about and wondering about, is how do you prioritize them? What hat is the most important to you? Which one can you let slide? Which one if you make it more important helps all the others function smoothly? Are there any hats you need to take off/get rid of?

For me, I think the most important one has to be wife. If I can be a great wife, I think I will automatically be a better mother. And if I'm a great wife and mother, I think I'll be better at everything else I do. Which means I occasionally have to pick being a wife "over" being a mother. I have to put my husband ahead of my son, and in doing so actually show my son just how much I love him. I think loving my son's father is a invaluable gift I can give him, with lasting effects. I heard it put this way before, Our "'till death do us part" commitment is to our husbands. Our children are supposed to leave the home, it is a "temporary" relationship. If we've raised our children correctly, they will be independent, responsible adults who leave the nest. The relationship will and should change. But when the kids are gone, your spouse should still be there (assuming tragedy hasn't struck). So what are you doing to prioritize that hat? Since I'm such a new mom, I haven't had many opportunities yet to put these thoughts into practice, especially since I'm still tied to my son as his food source. But I'm getting excited to think about ways to show Griffin how awesome his dad is and how much his mom is in love with daddy. And I pray that this will help grow Griffin into an amazing husband someday, since I've already started praying for the woman who will become his wife!

Sisters

I really want another baby. I want Griffin to have siblings and I want them to play together, grow up together, and be friends for life. That said, my sister and I are just beginning our friendship. It is much desired and long awaited, I'm sure as much by her as by me. We have never shared much in common, except genetic material, and even then we don't look much alike. When I was just dating my husband he said he'd never met two siblings more different than the two of us, and he still stands by that statement. But now we do have things in common. We're both married. And she's about to join me as a mommy. Like maybe even tonight about to join me. And I am so, so, so excited.

Do you have something you've prayed for forever and you feel like God has ignored you. Is it something that you know God would want you to have (like a friendship with your sister). Keep praying! It's 31 and 27 years later but my parents' dream of having daughters who love (and like) each other has finally come true!

Janae, you are going to be an excellent mommy and I am so excited to be Makenna's aunt! I love you!