Nine. . . (Alexa Hope)

Nine months ago I found out we were preggo and it was a total surprise! I had not planned on having more children until another full year passed and had just lost all my pre-pregnancy weight... the best laid plans:) ha! God had his own plans and it included completing our family sooner rather than later. This pregnancy was totally different from both my other pregnancies and still is . . .

Then God surprised us some more. I fully expected to welcome another boy into our family as it is very common in Jared's family to have all boys. The morning of my sonogram came and I got a call saying that the sonogram machine had broken. There was absolutely no way we could wait to find out as we had already planned a gender reveal party for that night! So we decided to head into a 3D sonogram location to figure out the gender there. The sonographer said, "I know what the baby is do you want to know." Ok it's totally a boy I thought. "It's a girl" I was so shocked I think I even shed a couple tears. . . God was giving us a daughter and we are still figuring this road out . . .

Jared and I then compiled our lists of possible names (we seldom agree although Kaleb was a rare exception). We started narrowing our lists down and came up with three possibilities each. We went on an overnight date determined to have a name picked by the time we came home. One name had stuck out to me and the morning we were supposed to leave I woke up and texted Jared the name although the first name had been on his list. The name is : Alexa Hope Stockton. :)

The final months of the pregnancy have been busy as we ended summer, started doing a little schooling for the boys, and celebrated Finn's second birthday. It's been hard to sit down and reflect so one thing I am thankful for about her due date being late is that I have more time to actually acknowledge and reflect on the fact that she is going to be our last baby (A post on this to come). So much is lost when time passes us by and I am thankful that I get these extra moments to experience pregnancy one last time. Currently we can't wait to meet her and welcome her to the family and nine months though rough have gone by very fast. . .

Alexa Hope we can't wait to meet you!!!