Building a Family

Right after Ryan and I got married we started hoping, dreaming, and planning for our future little family. We had ideas of what we thought it would be like, and we were excited for that stage of life. But we have since learned that you have NO IDEA until it gets here. Every day we build more on our family, and every day it looks different from the day before.

I knew I married an amazing, handsome, smart, and sweet as sugar man. But I never pictured him being the phenomenal father I see here. I never pictured him with his arms wrapped around his two little boys and with more joy splashed across his face than I have ever seen before. I never pictured the father with a passion for raising his boys to be strong men of character. I never pictured the husband feeding the toddler breakfast while filling up bottles and sippy cups and changing diapers all at 6:30 am just so I could sleep another 20 minutes.I never dreamed about the joy of being a new big brother. The excitement of having a little brother to spend hours on the living room floor tickling, cuddling, and already trying to wrestle with. I had not imagined the excitement that would fill our home as we continued building our family.When we dreamed of these "future children" we never dreamed about the endless hours these siblings would spend side by side, comforted just by the presents of each other close by, in whatever they may be doing (watching Elmo or "Melmo").
We talked about how fun having kids would be "someday", but we never talked about the joys of having a son who would want to wash his hands EVERY 5 SECONDS and get soap all over the bathroom. This was not the kind of fun we had anticipated, it is 100 times more exciting than anything we thought up!

I thought about how my heart would melt when these future children would tell me they loved me and things like that. But I never thought about how my heart would explode when they fell asleep in the living room floor on a boppy, or managed to squeeze out a smile for me at 6 weeks old.

We may have dreamed big dreams of building our family, but those dreams don't come close to the reality of the every day joy and blessings of watching your family grow. We still dream of the future, but now I stand in pure wonder knowing it will be 1,000 times more extravagant than I can even imagine. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next!