Mary, a young servant girl of the Lord who was on the verge of marriage to Joseph, in utter disbelief was informed that SHE would be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God incarnate.  God’s Son.  The Savior of the world.

Unexpected pregnancy is full of every emotion possible and raises innumerable questions.  FEAR runs the deepest and is naturally the automatic instinct and reaction.  When Justin and I found out we were pregnant with McKinlee, I was petrified and had no clue how to react.  The beauty and example Mary exudes at the news of Jesus’ coming is almost unimaginable.  Naturally she asked how her pregnancy could even be possible, but she is answered with God’s promise that nothing is impossible for Him.  Like me Mary was not planning on having a child, even more so the Son of GOD AND MAN, but her response to God’s plan for her and her child Jesus was PRAISE.  A completely selfless song of praise to the Lord for the gift ahead and the journey she would take as his servant.

My initial emotions at the thought of being a mother not even the mother of the Savior of the world filled me with a fear and a feeling of inadequacy.  Like Mary I ran through my head the HOW questions but as the reality of the situation settled in I chose to rejoice like Mary for God’s plan for Justin, McKinlee and myself.  Throughout my pregnancy I have gone through an extreme amount of growth and I’m not just ironically talking about the sweet baby girl growing inside of me, but growth with my God, my spiritual walk, my husband, and my family.  As McKinlee has grown I’ve realized what a true miracle and beautiful thing it is to be pregnant.  I love to feel her move, kick and the thought of having her in this world makes me absolutely giddy.  Today my journey of thirty-eight and half weeks of pregnancy comes to a close as we’ll go to the hospital and bring this tremendous gift into our lives.  The last couple weeks and few days and have been a non-stop whirlwind of preparing, stressing, nerves, excitement, many tears and joy.  I did not know that being induced would be an option and after prayers and contemplating certain reasons we decided that this is a choice we wanted to make, but the true reality of the unknown experience of labor and delivery that will be happening today has caused me to be full of those fearful emotions I had at the beginning, BUT we serve a loving God and “let us hold fast to the confessions of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful.”  Hebrews 10:23  

As much as I would like to I cannot know or control the process of what all will happen today and as much I would like to be 100% prepared for all the change that is about to happen, I cannot, but what I can do is sink deep into faith that my Father will take care of me and walk right beside me through HIS plan for our lives.  Faith is branching out into the unknown and like Abraham, “he was called out to go out in faith to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.  AND HE WENT OUT, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land…” Hebrews 11:8-9

I am not Mary and I am not Abraham, but their stories have shown a true testament of faith how the Lord promises to take care of His people and that His plan is perfect.  I am not bringing the Son of God into the world nor am I going to a land of inheritance, but I am a servant who is praying to do His will for my family as I become a mother who will strive to show McKinlee Christ’s love for her and teach her that she is a daughter of the King Most High who brought her to us in His perfect timing.  I am choosing joy and thankfulness as I go into an unknown foreign experience of parenthood and rest in the promise that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…” James 1:17