Hello, Norah. 

Somehow, time continues its unwavering forward march. 

Sweet girl, we miss you so.

I can't believe that one year ago today, we found out that I was pregnant. 
One. Full. Year.
365 days ago you came into our existence in a moment that filled us with a holy mix of fear, hope, and nervous excitement.

We had no idea what our lives were going to look like, we just knew that this was BIG. 

And you know what? We weren't wrong.

At 10:58am, 4 months ago today, we got to meet you.

Every moment of your life, from the very beginning to the way you continue to live with us now, has been so fiercely and uniquely you.

And baby girl, we are so proud.

In June:

You told our story. You have given me this voice to bring your story to the world, and I will continue to honor that every day for the rest of my life. This month I was given the opportunity to do an interview for the lovely ladies over at Gin & Zin talking about motherhood and loss. I am so grateful to be included in their mama stories, knowing that while my version of motherhood is painful, it is in no way unique. Isolation in loss is devastating and I pray that our story, your story, will help even just one person to not feel so alone.

You rocked Father's Day. Between you being 100% your daddy's girl and your incredible gift-giving abilities (I like to think you got that from me :) ) I should've known you'd make Father's Day special!    From the very first moment we knew of you to your love for anything loud, you made it clear that you have a heart for racing just like your daddy. After three weeks of off races and fighting with the s10 (his race truck) your daddy left the track with two trophies, his first time winning money, and a perfect light!

A quick racing lesson: In drag racing, everything is timed down to the thousandths of a second. When a racer leaves the starting line, they get what is called a 'reaction time'. This measures how closely timed to the light turning green a racer leaves the starting line. So, for example, a reaction time of .013 means that the starting line was crossed .013 seconds after the light turned green. A perfect light means that Lane left the starting line with a reaction time of 0.000. As you can imagine, this is quite rare, and something to be celebrated.

When your daddy turned to me and said, "I had fun today. It was a good weekend of racing." my heart could've exploded. Thank you for giving him such a great father's day, love.

You inspired support. You know just how deeply woven into our story the Ronald McDonald House is, and love, we're giving back in honor of you.

You've inspired us to do multiple things to raise money for this incredible organization:

1. For our wedding anniversary next week, we’re serving a meal from the very same RMH kitchen that served us. (I encourage others to do this great experience. You're not just serving food, you're providing compassion and love, nourishment for the soul, to those in the midst of crisis)

2. We're selling shirts! Your fierce life and God's fierce love inspired us to design and sell these shirts. I'm a little obsessed with them and want one in every color. They're $20 each, available for purchase until July 14th, and all the proceeds benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Over $300 has already been raised by these sales. All because of you!

3. We're participating as Team Norah in the family walk at the RBC Race for the Kids August 5th at Upper Landing Park in St. Paul, MN. It's a huge event with a half marathon run, relay, or skate, a 10 mile, a 5 mile, a 5K, and a 1K kids run. The part that we're participating in is a 3 mile walk for former and current RMHC families. Friends and family have already started joining us, either by participating in one of the other events, joining our team, or via donation. Seeing so many people come together to raise money for the RMH will be a beautiful sight. Oh, and it falls on my birthday. 

Remember that whole, Norah is an awesome gift-giver thing?
Yep.
She rocks.

Norah Mae, you are so, SO loved.
We can't wait to see what you and God have planned next.