“Children are a heritage from the Lord,” Psalm 127:3

If you missed the news, we are pregnant again! Our baby girl is due in the beginning of February.

We’ve known our girl name for years and we could not be more thrilled that our sweet Charlotte Lucy Elizabeth is on the way!

I’ve been calling this babe our lucky clover ever since we found out that she snuck in there! We had been planning a trip to Ireland next spring, but now we get the infinitely sweeter joy of adding a nearly Irish twin to our family.

Finley is an Irish name and I love that it honors the Irish heritage on my maternal side of the family. His name means sunbeam and warrior. Our prayer for Finn is that he will a “son-bearer” sharing the light of Christ and a “warrior” ready to battle (Ephesians 6:12, 2 Corinthians 10) and fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).

Sticking with the Irish theme, I plan to use white horses as a special symbol for our (Charlotte) Charlie girl. Growing up, my Mama always pointed out white horses to us and told us they were lucky to the Irish. Her great grandfather taught her to do a special hand trick every time she saw one. Family is indeed our heritage, and I love passing on as much meaning as I can in my children’s names.

Charlotte means free. We hope she will always cherish the freedom we have in Christ. We’d love to see this encompass her personality as she is free to love and just be, “for in Christ we live and move and have our being,” Acts 17:28.

 Lucy means light. She has already brightened our lives and filled us with more excitement than we can contain! We believe God’s love will continue to radiate brightly through her life.

I first fell in love with the name Lucy as a child reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis for the first time. Lucy is brave, kind, and loves Aslan (a picture of Jesus) most of all.

Elizabeth means loved by God. It is very special to us to pass on a name of my Mama, an incredibly loving, strong, hardworking, and intelligent woman. I would fill a book if I described all the qualities Charlotte would be privileged to get from my beautiful Mama.

I also love the story of Elizabeth in the Bible. She is filled with the Holy Spirit and praises continually. Luke 1:57 tells us, “When it came time for Elizabeth to give birth, her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her.” It’s truly our prayer that like Elizabeth in the Bible, others would see the life of our sweet daughter and glorify the King of Kings!

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior…generations will call me blessed,” Luke 1:46.

I too want to proclaim God’s goodness and undeserved favor as Mary of the Bible does. I couldn’t imagine more precious gifts than our beautiful, healthy, 8 month old boy and our baby girl on the way. I do not deserve a single blessing, let alone ones of such great magnitude. My heart aches for friends who have to walk the path of infertility and miscarriage. I know His love can be seen just as much in tragedy as in victory. I remind myself of this regularly when guilt creeps in and tries to steals my joy. Even in this season of undeserved blessing, my hope and joy must remain in Christ alone.

When Mary tells Elizabeth she is pregnant, Elizabeth proclaims, “Blessed is the one who believed there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Luke 1:45.

 Michael and I still firmly believe we are called to adopt. Having another baby again so soon does not change that for us. Although we don’t yet know when, we do believe that one day we will see the fulfillment of this desire from the Lord.

I plan to continue to do photography and save for adoption for as long as I can through this pregnancy. When the newest addition arrives I will, of course, take another maternity leave, after which I hope to, again, use my business to fund our future adoption!

You can read more about our heart for adoption here.

If you wish to support us on our adoption journey, booking a session or buying a print from the print shop is a great place to start.

We cannot wait to meet Charlotte Lucy Elizabeth! We appreciate all the love we’ve received since sharing our news and hope you will also join us in continued prayer for the future adopted babe(s) God has written on our hearts.

Photographs by When She Knew.