A long-awaited gift

On this day, eleven years ago, my sweet and wonderful Ella Grace was born. A long-awaited gift that I didn’t know if I would ever have.

She was a beautiful and longed-for, ten pounds of perfection. She didn’t cry at birth, just looked around the room in curiosity, which is still so much her personality to this day.

A few months earlier, Matt and I attended my cousins wedding and saw that one of the flower girls was named Ella Grace. We both liked the name a lot and Matt declared that would be the name of our baby. I wasn’t totally ready to commit that day, but I soon knew if we had a baby girl, her name would be Ella Grace. (Agreeing on a name is difficult!)

I had an easy pregnancy with no problems at all, and shortly after midnight on November 27th, 2006 (her exact due date), my water broke. We went to the hospital and sure enough, I was in labor, or so I thought. The problem? My body was not yet ready to have a baby, at all. I was 0% effaced and 0% dilated, but since there was now a risk of infection due to my water breaking, they would not send me home and she needed to be delivered within twenty-four hours.

 Matt and I walked the halls and did everything we could to progress the labor, to no avail. Finally,  I was given medication to induce the labor, but it was still slow going.  After a long and excruciating thirty-two hour labor, I finally gave birth to a beautiful, pink baby girl with thick black hair at 9:05, the next morning.

Ella Grace would be her name. I didn’t know the Lord at the time, but He was there protecting and loving me, regardless. After a three-year battle with infertility and a previous miscarriage, this beautiful baby was the most perfect gift.

Although we chose her name in what we though was a random way (reading it out of a wedding announcement) I can now see the hand print of God. Ella means ‘beautiful’ and Grace means ‘gift from God’– or altogether, “a beautiful gift from God’. I’m humbled and tearful just thinking  that even when I didn’t acknowledge Him, he loved me still.

I also believe the Lord made Ella ten pounds at birth to save her life. I did not produce even one drop of breast milk, which was not discovered until about a week later. The only reason the doctors had me supplement her with formula was due to her size. If she hadn’t been ten pounds, she would not have been getting any milk, and I wouldn’t have known any better.

Dear Lord- Thank you for knowing what is best for me and for giving me what I need. Thank you for relentlessly pursuing me, even when I thought I didn’t need you. Thank you for my beautiful gift, Ella Grace, and help me build my relationship with her. I pray that she knows how special and wonderful she truly is– because she is YOURS! 

 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”- James 1:17

Daughter of the King