Johnny’s 4th of July
The 4th of July is a holiday so special to our family thanks to our new son!
4th of July’s in Review:
2020 Sam and I are dating, to be engaged two months later!
2021 We adopt a new woof and there’s big announcement to make… We are going to have a baby!
2022 We celebrate Sammy’s first 4th of July, and he turns six months old!
2023 We become a family of four! Johnny is born on July 2nd, one day before his due date.
….What will next year bring?
A short note on Johnny…
We liked the name John, and all the cute nicknames that accompany it. I never thought to look up the meaning of John, I knew the significance of John in the Bible, the man whom Jesus loved, and it was a strong name to go with Patrick, Grandpa Berry’s first name. About a week before Johnny’s entrance into the world, the family group chat was buzzing with our name meanings and I decided to look up the meaning of our kids names and commit them to memory. When I got to “John”, I suddenly realized this was already the perfect name for our son- without even having met him yet in the world.
John means “God is Gracious”.
Certainly God has been gracious to us in every part of our life- but this pregnancy I felt God extend his grace to me in more ways than I could count. I was given so much energy throughout my pregnancy, very little nausea, long good sleeps every night, knowledge and wisdom to prepare, and a fresh excitement for the big day when Johnny would arrive. After my experience with Sammy, this shouldn’t seem possible. A week before John’s due date the Braxton Hicks kicked in strong, and I knew God was going to be gracious to me until the very end. He would give me a birth that I could get through and then he would help me recover like never before!
Spiritually, physically and mentally, he was gracious. The Lord allowed the birth to be short and gave me strength to finish until I was holding little Johnny in my arms. I was prepared for another long 15+ hours of labor and pushing, and instead I had 7 hours total. God certainly is gracious- he gives us undeserved gifts, and my gift is our perfect little baby boy! Little Sam loves his new brother, and they are already quite the duo.
-Taylor
