The Joy in the morning

Have I told you about Nora's middle name? Our boys have family names as middle names. So we had two family names picked out for girl middle names before we had any girls. Lyn and Aletta. The day that we found out about Maelyn's heart we changed her name from Nora Lyn to Maelyn Aletta. The Lord told us that her name was not to be Nora. And we thought that this was going to be our last baby so we figured this way we could use both middle names and be done. After Maelyn was born, we were done having kids, but I always thought about Nora. (Read Meeting Nora). I still thought about baby names, actually I still do. Is that weird? A little, it's okay. But at the time, as I thought about the concept of Nora, I wondered to the Lord what her middle name would be if it wasn't Lyn. And as Maelyn grew, and we walked through surgery and recovery and physical therapy, the Lord kept putting Nora on my mind. I don't remember exactly when but He told me that her middle name was supposed to be Joy. Joy was to come after all of the sorrow (John 16:20). After nights of crying over Maelyn's heart, Joy would come in the morning (Psalm 30:5). The Joy of the Lord was the strength  that got us through (psalm 28:7). Nora is the walking symbol of all of this. Her name means the Light and the Joy of the Lord. 

My mommy heart broke when I was told that Maelyn's heart was broken. Maelyn is truly perfect. She is who God made her to be. In the eyes of both her earthly father and her heavenly father she is perfect and there is nothing wrong with her. Even in her own eyes, she is healthy and great, and I pray that she always views herself as perfect and special. But as a mother, having a child from your womb be born imperfect, broken, not as she should be, and needing painful interventions, it is indescribably difficult. Knowing that my baby came from my body. Just knowing that she will have a different life. Knowing that she will never be healed. Watching her fight for life. Watching her miss milestones. Watching her struggle with different things. Waiting for things to get better, but knowing she will never be fully healed. All of these things were crushing my heart and my joy. But the Lord had a plan. When Maelyn was a year and a half old Nora Joy came to be. The Lord was fulfilling his promise.

Eleanora Joy is about to turn one. Watching her grow this year has been so healing. Her first year has been pretty much the opposite of Maelyn's first year. Nora has been perfectly healthy. She has hit milestones early. She has been loud and active. Nora is so full of love and joy. She wants to be one of the big kids. She is the perfect little sister for her siblings and completes our crazy little family so well. Nora loves her siblings so much and is so incredibly loved by them. We could not imagine life without her. She has brought a joy to our life that we didn't know we were missing. Nora has been slowly healing my mommy heart just by being her. I believe she has also helped Ben, Micah and Maelyn heal from the difficult year we had after Maelyn was born. God is so good to have planned all of this in advance and blessed us with Nora. She really brings us light and joy everyday.