Exactly a year ago from today, I fell in love.

This day last year was the wonderful day that I found out I was pregnant with Brooke. I remember it just like it was yesterday! I woke up to get ready for work (at Red Lobster) and I decided to take a pregnancy test. I remember looking at the positive test and jumping up and down with excitement. I was absolutely elated and I was so happy that I cried. John was at work, of course, so I was alone. I didn't want to tell anyone such fantastic news over the phone, so I went to work and kept my secret. After going through a miscarriage two months prior, I was very scared of losing the baby. I tried not to let that fear take over my joy, but it was very hard.

John was at work at the police academy that day, where I couldn't call him or see him. He had just started a long, grueling series of torture called Defensive Tactics (DT). Since it was his first day of DT, we didn't really know what to expect. I thought that he would come home and just be a little tired or in pain from all of the working out. So, I made this special dinner and I wrapped the pregnancy test up in a box and wrote him a long letter. When he walked in the door covered in his own vomit, I suddenly knew that DT was a bit harder than we had anticipated. Haha! My dinner didn't get eaten. He just ran upstairs and all he wanted to do was get cleaned up and relax. It wasn't quite the ideal way that I had planned on telling him our amazing news, but I proceeded to give him the box with the pregnancy test in it. He opened it up and though he was very happy, he was too sick to show an incredible amount of emotion.

I recall all of the questions I had that day. Would it be a girl or a boy? Who would he or she look like? When would my due date be? Will this be a healthy pregnancy? When will I feel the baby move? When do I get to wear maternity clothes? When will I look pregnant? I remember looking at myself in the mirror and just wishing my belly would instantly appear!:-)

Now as I sit here nursing my baby, I am mindful of how perfect God's plan was to bless my empty arms with the most gorgeous, healthy little princess I could have ever imagined. This time last year, my journey to motherhood was just beginning, and now that I am a mommy, I feel like the most blessed and most fortunate person in the whole universe.