what a difference a year makes

here are daniel and i, exactly one year ago today. we look tired, don’t we? that’s because we were surviving on very little sleep and the prospect of imminent, irrevocable change in our lives. we had also just spent the better part of the day deciding to go ahead and schedule a c-section for the next morning to deliver our potentially 11+ pound little girl 9 days overdue, which was one of the most emotionally-charged decisions of our entire pregnancy. i wanted a drug-free, natural delivery, but by the time this day arrived, i really just wanted her to be born very soon and to be healthy.
a few minutes after we took this portrait and made a couple of videos with our new camera, we were deciding how to spend our last evening as just the two of us when my water suddenly broke all over the eames chair in daniel’s office. i had always wondered if i would recognize that my water was breaking, but there was no doubt about it. along with the water came a sense of hope that just maybe God was going to give us the kind of birth plan that we had wanted all along. as it turned out, alex did arrive via c-section the next day, but not until i got to share the long labor process with my husband and my dear friend and doula nikki. the sharing with them is really what stands out to me about labor, and i’m so glad that we got to have that experience.
a year later, it’s another hot june evening, but this time i got to spend it watching my toddler(!) play with her dad and dance to bob marley, and my life is so good.
so, tomorrow will be all about her, but today my thoughts are more about my husband – we made it through our first year as parents, love, and i am so thankful that i get to share this with you. i’m so thankful that our marriage is stronger now than ever, and i can’t wait to see what happens next!

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