She Wrote Grace On My Heart

One of my most favorite guest posts to date, was the post I wrote for Mandy at She Breathes Deeply.  And the more I spend time with my little girl- the more I realize how much of becoming a mother has transformed my beauty and my idea of beauty.  And all the stretch marks and cellulite mark my body as one that carried a life... my daughter's life!

*****

We didn't ask for each other, but the day our lives intertwined, I would forever be changed for the better.

She wrote words of Grace on my heart the day she was born.  Before then I was simply motivated to keep moving with steps that chased a dream I once had.  I had given up after our first baby miscarried.  But my God had other plans...

And so, on December 15, 2009 our beautiful baby girl forever beautified my world.

Photography by Kathryn Riley Photography

But beauty shown through broken pieces as I struggled to fight post par tum blues.  Never medically diagnosed, I hid away in guilt and shame as I made one ignorant choice after another.  And I found myself and my new little family very much fighting for our survival as we gave up and lost everything we had.

But in the year that has passed, I discovered being a mother is so much more than a role.  It's a relationship.  Being a mother is a  gift that so many take lightly, and yet such beauty resonates through it. I have seen the smile (and silly faces) of an innocent soul transform a hardened heart.  I birthed love.  And that love is destined to roam this Earth as a representative of me, her daddy, and her God.  She is a little girl who radiates the inner me all the while flaunting the image of my features in her tiny face.

I've discovered that being a mother is far more than a name or title.  Being a mother is a sash of beauty.  A mark that forever draws out my delicate yet passionate flaws and perfections.  

I love everything about my little girl and about the mark she's made on my heart.