For this child, we have prayed.

When I try to find the words to know where to start as I bring you along on our journey, I keep coming back to the Facebook announcement we made, sharing that all we'd prayed for had come to be.  I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing that with you now.  I think it's the best place to start.  

I'm Missie.  I'm 32, married to an amazing partner in crime and we have a 2 1/2 year old bundle of amazing joy named Grace Elizabeth.   I type this from my hospital bed at a hospital 45 minutes from our home where we will journey together, day by day, to bring Noah into this world hopefully 5-7 weeks away from today.  Every day will be a battle for he and I and I thank you for coming along on our incredible journey with us.   

Here is where our story begins...  

The past year, I have cried tears of hopelessness, of failure and of anger. Month after month, I felt physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. I rallied against God and cursed His plan for us. I thought to myself "we try to be GOOD people and great parents, why can't we have another baby?" I rejoiced when my friends conceived, but inside I broke a little more with every announcement. I KNEW our child was up there, somewhere... right? Through the injections, the pills, the blood tests, the charting and temping, I lost a little more hope every day. I was on the last round of a certain fertility medication I could take in my life time and it was time to just let go.

Finally, I sold and donated a bunch of Grace's clothes, got rid of things that were cluttering our home and also mentally clogging me up. I started accepting God's plan and was finally at peace with being a family of 3 forever. Besides, having a baby in December, around Christmas, being pregnant on an up coming 10 hour car ride to Nashville, not being able to play co-ed softball - pregnancy would get in the way of all that. And I'd just bought 3 new pairs of amazing (and spendy!) jeans that fit me like a glove. Nope, not a good time for a baby. And the fact we even got pregnant with Grace was a miracle. Besides, she is pretty awesome, why screw up a good thing?

"Man plans, God laughs".

The day I gave away the last of my holdout baby items, I put Grace down for a nap and took the requisite monthly pregnancy test. When 2 little lines appeared, I fell to my knees, praying and thanking God for His crazy, wild, inconvenient plan. I was shaking so hard and could barely walk to the couch to sit down. A baby? It worked? We're actually having a baby? We are having a baby. WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!!! 

Baby Mauldin #2 will join our family sometime around Christmas this year. We are beyond excited to become a family of 4 and I cannot wait for Grace to have a little brother or sister. "For this child, I have prayed". Never give up, keep going and join us as we thank God for our miracle children.

We’ll find out if it’s a boy or girl sometime in August.  Grace just sings the Baby Bumble Bee song, so I'm convinced she thinks it's got wings.