One wildly surprising thing about the journey of grief is the raw emotions you find yourself experiencing that show up out of nowhere. Don’t worry, this is actually a very happy post — I’m just starting with a sidenote/forenote of sorts. A few days ago, I had Arabella strapped in on her changing table and I was on my knees on the floor getting something from one of the lower shelves, or sorting laundry, I don’t remember. She flipped over to her belly {she was strapped in and I was right beside the table, so don’t get worried} and her teency little baby bum was in the air, and she had a gorgeous smile on her face. The thought occurred to me, though it had many times before that moment, that it will still be several months before we have the joy of introducing this little person to our family on the far side of the pond. The thought put me into tears on the nursery floor, and I was surprised by how “close to the surface” they were.

With heaps of excitement and anticipation, we are looking forward to visiting SA in March of next year for a big, important birthday. In the midst of the to-do lists involving moving, laundry, estate-settling and getting food on the table, I’m going to make extra efforts to share photos and stories in the meantime. {We miss you heaps, Goo-Goo & Gammy & Auntie Lyn!}

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We are a little bit behind on baby photos. The good news is, we have been taking them each month. The downloading, editing, and posting of them is a bit of a different story. We left off at about three months…and we’re at eight now… so I’ve decided just to pull out a few highlights from each month and then hopefully I can get a full post for eight months up… before the Belle is nine months.

Since there’s already been plenty of ado, I’ll spare you further and jump in.

It all started with this tiny gift of a creature arriving in perfect timing…

And then her first month flew by…

Did you know every time a baby sneezes an angel gets its wings? 😉

At two months, she seemed rather unimpressed with the whole photo-taking idea. Or maybe she found it a bit… overwhelming?

At three months, she decided she loved it!

Just before four months, I lost my Dad, and discovered this little girl was a gift I never knew I needed. We took these pictures the day before his funeral, counting gifts in this life, even in the midst of loss.

At five months, it seemed the Belle decided she was not only cool with this whole monthly photo thing, she was ready to ROCK it.

At six months, we decided it was high time we got outside (HH’s favorite place to shoot!) and added some color to the mix.

I also decided an outfit change was in order. {Thanks Kathryn!!}

Getting outside = great decision!

Finally, at seven months, the Belle seemed as comfortable around the camera as she is around Cheerios : very comfortable.

This thoughtful little face gives me a heartache…

And since the boys arrived as the session was wrapping up, we decided to do something special…

And grab a new image of the whole gang! I’m so proud of these kiddos… so grateful they are in my life… and so serious when I say that as crazy as things might get when you have three sweet peas and the oldest is four, they give me daily reasons to say Thank You, Jesus. And I trust they always will.

So for one and all, near and far… but especially for the folks we miss so much way down South… that’s Zero to Seven Months in 27 photos.

With hopes I’ll grab a chance to write again soon,

With Love,

xCC