Cousins

A lifetime of waiting . . .

Months of planning and anticipation . . .

Countless hours on our knees in prayer . . .

and the three cousins are together at last!

 Braxton Philip Cotton, 2 weeks

Cassidy Nicole James, 6 1/2 months

That other little cutie who I can't name, 2 months 1 week

 Cassidy is cracking up, "Hahaha! Why are they so little?"

The boys are afraid of her.

 "Do we look like cousins?"

 The Cotton boys and the giant baby!

 Cassidy says, "I love these guys!"

 

"Really? These babies are for me?!"

  

"Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! My cousin is awesome!"

 "You guys were right. This is so cool!"

 

"Give me a kiss!"

 

 "What does your shirt say? Hey! My auntie rocks, too!

Do you think it's the same lady?"

 

"Uh, what's she gonna do now? Where's my mom?"

 "I could just squeeze him up!"

  

"I love this guy! We're gonna be best buds!"

These three babies all under one roof is nothing short of a miracle. Our family has known nothing but death and loss for so long. We haven't had a new baby in ten years (That's Sydney!). Now, in the span of six short months, these three little bundles of love and joy came into our lives and made it all worth it. Every tear we shed, every prayer we lifted, every step we took brought them to us. Brought these babies to us, purposed by God, and ordered by God. You already know God loves me, but this little detail is just another way He shows it. Miss Cassidy is only four months older than her cousin (the son of my oldest nephew) and six months older than her other cousin (the son of my second oldest nephew). Can you imagine what a bittersweet day this would have been for me if it was only the boys together in the pictures? If I didn't have my baby girl yet? If I had just visited them and held them and wanted to be happy about them but just wished more than anything that when they were in my arms they could make me feel the way Gabriel did? But walking away empty handed and bawling my eyes out on the way home because, of course, no baby could ever satisfy me like he did.

But God loves me.

So Cassidy came first. She had to come first. 

Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, for my very own Cassidy Nicole James,

and for her awesome cousins!


Proverbs 16:9 (NLT): "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps."