It’s with overwhelming happiness that I share with you, dear readers, a bit of news that I’ve been keeping quiet on recently. Jordan and I are expecting! That’s right – Baby Redella is making his or her debut in late January! The news has finally sunk in and we are pinching ourselves excited.
Full disclosure: It was QUITE the long and windy road to get here. Jordan and I went through the ringer over the past 2.5 years trying to make a baby… miscarriages, surgeries, and fertility treatments leading up to, finally, multiple rounds of IVF. It wasn’t easy. On a lot of days, it emotionally and physically SUCKED. There were days, especially during the (heavily medicated) IVF egg retrieval process, that I honestly didn’t know what the point of it all was – not just the point of having a baby but of life in general. Seriously Jordan deserves the Medal of Honor for dealing with my mood swings, irritability, anger and sadness over the past couple years.
I could go on about the hard times but this is a happy story – not just because of the pot of gold babe Redella at the end of the rainbow but because the journey to have a baby is teaching me so much about myself. It’s pushing me to look beyond the ‘perfect plan’ I have in my head for what my life should look like and when (married at 30, first baby at 31, etc.) and trust God’s timing instead. The time we’ve spent waiting for a baby’s allowed me to grow professionally and creatively… I never would have started Bloomsbury & Battle were it not for the extra time on my hands and the escape from reality it provides. I’ve met or grown closer to some of the most important people in my life during this season. Friends have turned into family and family has turned into an even stronger rock to lean on by opening up and sharing the hard stuff, the less-than-perfect side of myself. It sounds cliché but I know this journey has a purpose and is for good; I am exactly where I need to be and at just the right time.
I am going to write about some of the fun stuff in the next few posts – pregnancy fashion (or, honestly, the lack thereof!), baby and nursery gear I’m eyeing, that kinda thing. I hope you’ll follow along as Jordan and I get ready to meet our long-awaited addition! In the meantime, here are a few photos to have a peek at from my baby shower on a cozy, rainy morning in Atlanta a few weeks ago.
