Oh, how deep, wide and overflowing is the grace of God! Friends, my heart is about to burst. Can you even believe how great his mercies are?! After 7 years of unexplained infertility, there is now LIFE in my womb. I can’t possibly express all that my heart, body and mind are feeling in this one post, but one thing is for sure, God continues to point my heart back to His goodness. He is a God who heals, restores, redeems and gives immeasurably more than we deserve.

When I first stepped foot into our now backyard almost a year ago, I knew that this place would be life-giving. For the first time in my over ten years in Arizona, I instantly felt home; this was the place that we would raise our family. After a really long adoption journey, this home was our fresh start and I knew good things were to come. In the almost-year that we have been here, God has done so much work on my heart; cleansing deep spaces and reawakening my awareness of His love for me. As most of you know, our olive tree has continued to be a picture of flourishing and the abundant life that God desires for us in Christ Jesus. That’s why I named my ministry Beneath the Olive Tree.

Tomorrow, this little miracle in my belly will be 9 weeks. As I looked on my pregnancy apps (I get to use pregnancy apps!) to see how the baby is growing and developing, I discovered that my baby is now the size of, an olive. I couldn’t help but beam. God knows my love of metaphors and poetic stories and once again, He used our olive tree to give me a picture of life to the full! Beautiful, right?!

We are over the moon, still quite shocked and in constant thanks and prayer for this miracle. I plan on blogging our journey, including how we found out, what it feels like to be pregnant after infertility, etc. But in the meantime, would you rejoice and pray with us?!

Baby Kokes is due to arrive March 21, 2016 (first day of spring and my big sister’s birthday) <3

Thanks Charity Maurer for snapping these precious pics of our family.

This verse below continues to be our family’s life verse. It was true when I first wrote about Bella and it’s true about the gift of life inside me.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”.

Ephesians 3:20-21