Hey sweet friends! If you haven’t already heard the news… surprise! Wes and I are PREGNANT and are praising the Lord for the sweetest little blessing joining our family this May! We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness in entrusting this precious little life to us in this season and can’t wait to start this new journey together! You are so loved, adored, and prayed for already, sweet Baby Mabry! We can’t wait to meet you and the “blessing of peace” you are to us already!
The morning of my big 12 week appointment (when I got to hear the baby’s strong little heartbeat for the first time), the Lord prompted me to listen to the song “The Blessing” by Kari Jobe and I was literally worshipping (and crying) in the car while listening to it. It has been hard not being able to have Wes come into all of my appointments with me (because of COVID), but so overwhelming the way that God has wrapped me in his comfort and peace every single time.
If you have never listened to this powerful song, you should go look it up on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you stream your music. The lyrics that have been so powerful for me in this season are:
The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon you And be gracious to you The Lord turn His Face toward you And give you peace
As we receive, we agree, amen
May His favor be upon you And a thousand generations Your family and your children And their children, and their children
And to top it off, I had a dear spiritual mentor and friend of mine text me, right at the same time as I was blasting “The Blessing” in my car after coming out of my appt with good news, that she was “praising God for blessings of peace” over me – and I immediately knew that Baby Mabry was our little “blessing of peace.” It still makes me want to tear up just thinking about the indescribable joy and excitement in getting to hear sweet Baby Mabry’s heartbeat for the first time – a moment that any momma will never ever forget. It is the craziest feeling to know that the Lord has entrusted you to grow a precious little life inside of you – and one that I cannot even begin to put into words.
If you read my last blog post, you might remember I wrote about what all the Lord was teaching me about trust and belief, and how a sweet friend had texted me the most empowering words that said my “assignment was to trust and believe.” Well, this is the full text this friend sent that brought me to tears and gave me such hope and comfort in how God truly loves this little baby more than I could ever dream or imagine – and that Baby Mabry already has a mighty mighty plan ahead of his or her life:
“I just know your sweet baby has a purpose. You may not know it yet, but God brings us all into existence to fulfill his will and purpose in the earth. Your assignment is to trust and believe!! Your Heavenly Father has you in the palm of his hand, He is a MIGHTY GOD, and more than able to do anything but fail! He loves you so much and so do I! Rest in Him!!”
And speaking of God having a mighty mighty plan for this sweet little baby’s life, one of our “most funny stories” of pregnancy so far was our car breaking down on our way to Charleston (the weekend we took our announcement photos – the ones that are posted throughout this blog). All I remember is how HUNGRY I was and how Wes went and bought me multiple mini cheeseburgers at the Wendy’s (attached to the gas station where we broke down) while we were waiting on the tow truck man – lol, a cheeseburger never tasted so good!!
It obviously was not funny at the time, but now it’s a memory that we look back on and laugh about because we made good friends with the sweet tow truck man – named Billy – who said that the “devil must be scared of this baby” and another friend who texted me saying “Yess he already knows there’s a God warrior in that belly!” So, like I said, apparently God does already have a mighty mighty plan for this baby’s life that has the devil shakin’ in his boots!
Now, I’m going to rewind a little bit and tell y’all about how I got to tell Wes we were pregnant as well as how we got to first share the happy news with all of our closest family and friends.
First: The day I got to tell Wes that he was going to be a daddy!
September 17th, the afternoon I felt this gentle nudge and whisper from the Lord to take a pregnancy test - and was completely blown away to find out, to my surprise, we were pregnant!!
Upon seeing those two pink lines, I started crying and just couldn’t believe that God had blessed us in this way!! Red (my sweet little pup) immediately came in and comforted me as I laughed and cried - knowing I had to figure out a way to surprise Wes with the news when he got home in an hour or so!
So I immediately ran over to the Marshall’s by our house and searched the store for anything baby-related and found the cutest little baby pumpkin outfit and a mug that said, “dad life is the best life.”
Luckily, Wes was running late at work that day, so I had time to hurry back home and have the little gift bag waiting for him when he walked in the door. The funniest part of the video (you can find this video over on my personal Instagram page) is that the first thing Wes said when he walked in was “Babe, I just saw a MASSIVE deer!” Lol little did he know that I had the biggest surprise EVER to share with him!
Anyhoo, this truly was the sweetest moment for us and a day I will never ever forget! I absolutely cannot believe that I get to be a mama and that this amazing man gets to be with me every step of the way in this new exciting season ahead!
I know Wes is going to be the sweetest dad ever and it has been hard to even put into words how much of a precious blessing this baby is to us already and the hope and joy this new life has brought us!
And the craziest part is, I had just finished the last page of my journal that day, and for some reason, Jesus always has a funny way of having new journals signify a new season for me. And it was just another little “god wink” for me that His timing truly is perfect and that this baby was His plan for us all along!
Next: Getting to share “our little secret” with our parents, families, and friends!
So, not surprisingly at all, my mom found out when I came home for a friend’s bridal shower in Charlotte and pretty much “just knew,” probably because I was smiling so much and was so giddy!
Shortly after, we got to surprise my dad (because mom had already figured it out) with the news by having them down for dinner at the Piedmont Club here in Spartanburg and had the waitress come out with a little bag holding a card and a rubber ducky that we had written “little duckling on the way” underneath!
Then we told Wes' sweet parents the next day with a little pair of “baby bear slippers,” before heading to dinner at one of our favorite spots - Caro-Mi!
To say they were all shocked would be an understatement, but man, so much joy in finding out they were going to be grandparents (you can also find these short - and funny- little video clips over on my instagram page)!
After that, we slowly began sharing the news about Baby Mabry with the rest of our families as well as some of our closest friends (the photos I’ve included in this post are only some of the moments we captured in telling our happy news - others not pictured because we honestly just forgot in the moment) and it was such a blessing to get to share the joy with them and ask for their prayers.
I can’t tell you how many friends, repeatedly, said how happy they were to hear some “good news” in this midst of all that 2020 has been. And we couldn’t agree more! Baby Mabry truly is our little blessing of peace, hope, and joy in the midst of it all.
It has been such a sweet blessing to get to walk through this new season with so many other friends and loved ones in my life who are pregnant, too - and definitely an answer to prayer! And I even had one friend say that she had been having dreams for weeks that I was pregnant and another friend that called and told me “I just know you’re pregnant...I don’t know why, I just have this feeling” before I had even had a chance to tell her.
We have been absolutely blown away by all of the love, support, and kind words from so so many of y’all about our “little secret” that is finally out!! Thank y’all so much for rejoicing with us in our happy news! We know without a doubt that this child is so unbelievably loved and prayed for already!
Also, I wanted to share two little resources that have been such “God-sends” for me. I’ve already shared these with a couple close friends who are also pregnant (which side note - that has been the sweetest blessing EVER from the Lord to have so many of my besties to walk through this exciting new season with, which I didn’t have during my engagement season - go Jesus!)
Anyhoo, as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I needed a space to journal my thoughts (since it was me and Jesus’ secret for so long) and I wanted special keepsakes for Baby Mabry down the road.
This book on the left by Korie Herold (#growingyoujournal ) has been such a sweet way to record all of baby’s doctors appt info (like ultrasounds and heartrate, etc.) and just a perfect space to record how I’m feeling and how we told our close friends and family, as well as all other kinds of stories and reflections! And the book on the right, “Praying Through Your Pregnancy” has been SO helpful in guiding me in what to be praying specifically for each week of pregnant - like baby’s specific organs and developmental milestones - and man, it has been such a blessing and opened my eyes to how powerful it is to pray for our children both in the womb and after they are born!!
If you have any pregnant friends, please share these resources with them!! And if you would like links, please please message me! These have helped me so much with my pregnant thus far and I am thankful to have found them!
And last but not least, for all of y’all who have been wondering what my “pregnancy cravings” have been… it has been Ramen noodles and Kraft Mac n’ Cheese!! I have been craving alllll the salty carbs and it has been so funny to Wes because, for the majority of the first trimester, ramen noodles and mac n’ cheese were the only things that always sounded good to me. I have not really had much morning sickness apart from a little nausea during the first trimester, and I have been very very thankful for that!
We are so over the moon excited for sweet Baby Mabry coming this May and are so thankful for every single prayer coming our way as we embark on this new journey together! We have been completely overwhelmed by the Lord’s goodness and mercy in blessing us with our little “blessing of peace” in the midst of such a crazy year and are so thankful to have so many prayer warriors walking alongside us!
“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!" // Luke 1:45
“I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give this child to the LORD. For his (or her) whole life will be given over to the LORD.” // 1 Samuel 1:27-28
