OH HAPPY DAY!

Gosh, I've been thinking about this post for quite a while now. It is true. The Brantley Family will be expanding to four come January. Hallelujah! It has been such a task getting here, but so worth it. Every setback that I've encountered, I've never doubted that God is good. And HE is indeed Good. We've known for too long. I found out way to early. I actually had sworn off pregnancy tests after the two months prior to it, having two positive pregnancy tests both months, and then no baby developing. I was sure that I wasn't going to take one. Then, I had to take an antibiotic and as I was reading the instructions, it said not to take if you are pregnant. I thought, "maybe I should just take one to be sure." I had one left over from my value-pack purchase in the previous months and it was positive. Immediately, I was not excited. After all, I had positive pregnancy tests the two months before. The next 10 days consisted of blood work every other day and 5 ultrasounds to confirm that it was in the uterus. Lo and behold, it was. After my last ultrasound (4 weeks ago), I had a high risk of miscarriage because of the blood in my uterus and I was asked to take it easy (this risk of miscarriage is very normal). Taking it easy with a two year old around is laughable. So, I was still a little nervous.

But, every time I prayed about it, I kept on hearing the word, hope. And so I never lost hope. Even during the failed pregnancies over the past year, I never lost hope. One of my sweet friends here in Pawleys prayed for me and she heard this verse which has been my verse that I've clung to,

"May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you TRUST in Him, so
that you may overflow with HOPE by the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

And I've hated keeping it a secret (I'm the worst secret-keeper ever). I told my family after this ultrasound, we can start telling people. If you look at the ultrasound, it has the dates of Jan 14 and Jan 15 as a due date. I'm going to stick with the 15th, but hope for the 9th!!!
So, Harrison is going to be a big brother. It is still hard to imagine your only child as the oldest sibling. And he has been so sweet about it. We've been talking about the baby in my belly and he usually looks at my belly, then leans in, puts his eye up to my belly button and says "Hi Baby," and then kisses my belly. It pretty much melts my heart. Until he points to my belly and says, "Baby, Mine." Ugh...not exactly. But he puts the "mine" stamp on anything that he can these days. Oh, and the button in the picture he is wearing was a button that we came across when unpacking our new house. Adam wore it when his brother, Matt was born. Love it. This is why you keep stuff around.