Happy due date, Anna Grace!

Can you believe it?! Anna turned 2 months old yesterday and today is her due date, CRAZY.  When we are out n' about and people come up to us to coo over Anna, the first question asked, after the rote response of, "Ohhh, that is a real baby!" is, "How old is she?" And instead of dumbfounding them with the true answer of 2 months old we say, "She is a week old."  We did this for a long time with Addie and will probably have to do this for a while with Anna.  It really is mind-bending to think that until a couple of weeks ago, we given a beautiful inner look at what happens in the womb.  Preemies are a blessing in that way.  What a privilege and miracle to see first person, not simply through ultrasound, the person that God has knit together.  We are praising the Lord that although our perfect timing would have delivered Anna today, he had a different plan for her and has safely carried her through.  I know today will always have significance for me and I will forever be thankful for God's grace poured out on us through precious little Anna Grace.   

A quick update...

Anna Grace has been home for almost two weeks!  Praise the Lord.  I have had several people ask how she is doing and how the other kids are adjusting?  Well, Anna is doing great.  We have learned from both of our NICU experiences to "look on the bright side." And one of the brightest things about being in the NICU is that they come home on a schedule, which means we don't have quite as much of the unpredictably of a regular newborn.  She pretty much eats and sleeps according to the schedule she had in the hospital and thankfully that coincides, more or less, with a regular day for us.
The other kiddos are doing well and honestly, I don't even think they have noticed much of a change since we brought Anna home.  As far as Brandon and I are doing... it felt like more of an adjustment when we went from 1 to 2 and then when we brought Elle home than it has with Anna Grace.  Maybe we have just adjusted and come to expect chaos over the course of this past year!
Now I want to leave you with a picture of our sweet tiny girl, who happens to be somewhere in the 4.5lb range now! :-)  A childhood friend of mine, who now has her own photography business, allowed me to snap this shot of our sleeping beauty while she was doing her Newborn pictures.  I cannot wait to see the "real" thing!  Thank you Lindsay, for your time and talent.