Up until 17 weeks I was set on not finding out the gender of our third baby until delivery. I already have a boy and a girl and I thought it may be fun to wait.
But the closer I got to the anatomy scan the more I questioned whether I really should wait. I was all over the place! My husband can tell you! My friends can tell you! But ultimately I decided that I didn’t want to exchange the 20 weeks of knowing for that one huge moment of surprise during delivery.
And goodness, I’ve no regrets!🎀
I love knowing. I love thinking about the flower in the garden I’ll chose for our baby GIRL. I love that I have all this time to pick out one strong name full of meaning and just perfect for her. I love that I’ll get to pray by name and imagine what she will be like.
Of course you can pray and pick out names and imagine without knowing the gender, but after giving it so much thought, I found out I love to know! So yes, we are expecting another little girl! And I was surprised.
For 99% of this pregnancy I totally assumed boy. But you know what? It’s fun to be wrong. I can’t believe I’ll have girls…plural! I am excited.
A few days before our anatomy scan, the first of our April seeds bloomed into a glorious sunflower.
Now we had a few rogue sunflowers already blooming where we’ve done composting, but our first sunflower that we planted in the springtime officially bloomed. The Sunflower Parade has begun and there’s no stopping it!
Something I love about gardening is how it makes me pay attention to seasons. I love to watch the seasons turn and how I savor the joys in each, but it certainly wasn’t always that way.
But there is something so special about waiting for the roses to bloom in the first days of April and to watch how the flowerbed bursts in June and looks so soft on those long summer evenings. It’s thrilling to welcome the first sunflower bloom and know July is going to be thick with them.
And when that little boy’s August birthday turns the corner, you’ll be taking a photo with him at those bright, leaning stalks. The air will be scented with blackberries soon and September will roll in slowly with the slightest breeze beckoning autumn though autumn is never in a rush.
And you’ve learned how good it is to not be in a rush too.
Noticing all these things are the small, poignant ways I celebrate life. It’s how I embrace the passage of time though the eternal nature of my being and soul feels squeezed tight within the confines of time. But instead of fighting it, I live it. I see it. I embrace and enjoy it.
It’s such a delicate art to relish life and not be rushed when life feels both like lightening speed and like the never-ending trenches.
In this hot, sticky, bright summer week, I’m thankful for the Sunflower Parade of July, the joy of anticipating another little girl, the summer garden looking less young all the time, the promise of autumn, and all the blackberry stains and sprinkler runs before then.
What is something you love about the summer season? What have you noticed right here in July that both interrupts the lightening speed with which life passes and the long feeling of being in the trenches? Let yourself consider this before the week whisks you away.
Don’t miss whatever it is that makes your July beautiful…an
Savor everything that marks your life with such life.
A Poem for Mothers Watching Their Babies Grow
Sierra V. Fedorko 
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