The Abundant Wife

Naomi: 39 weeks, 4 days

Dear Naomi,

It is hard to believe that nine months have passed already, and your due date is only two days away! You’ve turned our worlds upside down already, without you even knowing it. Brad and I been students, teachers, professors, coaches, leaders, actors, waiters, camp counselors, artists, and more, but we have never been parents before. It’s a whole new world for us: cribs, bassinets, diapers, breastfeeding, childbirth, childcare, pediatricians, pacifiers, jogging strollers, car seats, bibs, and tiny clothes. Your presence has changed our values, our priorities, our conversations, our dreams, our perspective. You’ve matured our relationship and brought us closer together than ever before.

Physically, you’ve brought so many changes to my life. From first trimester nausea (or maybe it was just the Chinese food!) to third trimester itchy hands and feet, you’ve affected my body. Everything is new with you: maternity clothes, heartburn, swollen feet, and Braxton-Hicks. You’ve gone from unnoticed to an unmistakable basketball-sized bump with the weight of a bowling ball! As the months passed by you developed the skills of an acrobat as you kicked, jumped, rolled, spun, and hiccuped your way around my abdomen. Brad and I love to watch and feel your feet move under the surface of my skin in some strange internal dance.

Brad and I joke about the life we are bringing you into, and how it hasn’t gone exactly as we had planned. We never hoped to be bringing you into our lives at a time when we are unemployed, interviewing for jobs, and living in my parents’ basement. We don’t have a beautiful nursery prepared or your college education financed, and we don’t even know where we will be working or living in two months. Our lives are in limbo except for the inevitable reality of your arrival in the next week or so. We’ve read a lot of books and gotten a lot of advice, but in so many ways, we will never be ready for you. I imagine that on-the-job-training is the best preparation we can get, so we’ll have to ask for your forgiveness now for all of the mistakes we will make with you.

Yet for all of that, we would not trade you for the world. We know that God will provide for all of the unknowns, in His perfect timing, and according to His perfect will. You are also a part of his perfect timing for us, and He will always provide for your needs when you ask Him. You have already brought so much joy and hope to our lives and the lives of those around us. You are the result of the love Brad and I share for one another, and the great love that God has for all of us. You are already His child, perfectly formed for the life He has ahead for you. Although Brad and I have so little to offer you now in the way of wealth or possessions, we are abundantly rich in love, faith, family, and relationships. You may lack for many things in your life, but you will never be lacking in love. Already we long for the moment when we get to see you and hold you, to welcome you into our family, and get to know you. Your arrival is only days away, and we cannot wait to meet you!

Love,
Mom and Dad

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11