Wished for Child

How is it that 20 weeks can feel like an eternity?  We were so anxious to know whether we were having a girl or boy that it felt like forever until the all important ultrasound.  From day one, I was certain that our sweet baby was a girl.  I had no doubts.  Aaron, on the other hand, based on his scientific interpretation of the way the baby moved during the 1st ultrasound and this picture below was beginning to think we were having a baby boy.

Either way we really had no preference of boy or girl.  Honestly, our only prayer was for a healthy baby.  As the time drew near we wanted to think of a fun way to find out the gender.  We also wanted the opportunity to share this in a creative way with our family.  I got the idea to have Aaron's brother's girlfriend Erin (aka the cupcake master) make us cupcakes to reveal to the family (and us) the gender.  She would carefully injected either pink or blue frosting into each cupcake. 

The morning of ultra sound we gave the tech 2 cards, each having either our girl or boy name.  We asked that she only return to us the proper card.  I immediately rushed to give the card to Erin so that I wouldn't be tempted to peek.  I made one pit stop at work before handing off the card to let my friend Caleen take a peek.  Erin and Caleen were the only ones who knew whether we were having a boy or girl.  I don't know what I was thinking, I was so anxious and I had just voluntarily signed myself up for another day and a half of waiting!  It did however make it more special to find out with our family at the same time whether we would have a pink or blue nursery. 

We ate dinner together and moved onto dessert.  Erin did an amazing job with the cupcakes, I still actually have cravings for them (blame it on the pregnancy).   

Yum!

Family - getting ready to find out

The verdict - a sweet baby girl

Although I was certain from day one that our baby was going to be a girl, I was actually 100% surprised when the cupcake was filled with pink frosting.  Rewind to the day prior when I showed Caleen the card.  She did a great job of playing off what she had seen and didn't say much until the middle of the day when she accidentally referred to our baby as a he (TWICE!).  I tried to act like I didn't hear her, I just didn't want her to feel bad about slipping and telling me.  All day I was trying to wrap my head around how I could have been wrong.  I was certain when I bit into the cupcake it would be blue.   To my complete amazement it wasn't.  There is a simple explanation for this, Caleen is pregnant as well, with a boy.  She was so used to saying he that she did so without thinking.  Once she said it, she felt as though she couldn't correct herself because then I really would know it was a girl.  Her little slip up actually made it more fun to find out we were having a girl, surprises are the best!

We had picked out the name Malia about 3 years ago, at that time we shared the name with my mom.  She said that Malia is the Hawaiian form of the name Mary.  How fun to be able to, in a way, name a daughter after her mother.  As women we usually do not get this honor.  The day before we found out she was a girl I decided to look up other meanings of her name, that is when I found the meaning "Wished For Child".  Aaron and I were so blown away, after all the praying, hoping, wishing we had done for her, the name was perfect.  Her middle name is Joy - after our niece Olivia Joy and because we already know that Malia will bring a light and joy to this world that we have never experienced.  Can't wait to meet her!!   

Malia's most recent glamour shot