It's been a hot minute since I've sat down to write one of these, but it's time to get back into it.

For those of you that are new here: Hi! I'm Maria. I grew up in Iowa and moved to Independence, MO when I met my husband. We have a seven month old daughter, Zoe, who is just the sweetest gift we could ever imagine. I have the joy and blessing of being employed by our home church as the Administrative Assistant and the Director of Youth Ministry. And in my free time, I (attempt to) run this photography business.

I took a break from blogging when I had Zoe, with the intention of returning to my weekly blogs after maternity leave. That time came and went, and blogging was the least of my worries. The last seven months have been incredible as Joe and I have walked this journey of becoming parents. It all started on November 15th. I began feeling contractions around 8:30am, but they were inconsistent and still too far apart to warrant heading to the hospital. So I waited, and I worked. I got the rest of my to do list done and headed home to call the hospital and see if it was time to head in. They said we should, so we left our house and arrived at the hospital around 3:00pm. They monitored me for a few hours and then sent me home at about 6. By 8, we were back at the hospital, and admitted by 9pm. I thought by midnight we'd have our daughter. Zoe had other plans. She finally made her grand entrance at 12:30pm on November 16. We were so excited; our beautiful baby girl was finally here.

Obviously, life hasn't been the same. Raising a child has been a whirlwind and a roller coaster. But it's been amazing. Let me tell you, friends. Parenting is WILD. I never dreamed I'd be excited about poops, rolling, waving, or hearing "ba ba ba". But here we are, and we are loving it. Zoe is so sweet, so smiley, and she recently got her first tooth! She is working on sitting up, and we anticipate she will start crawling soon, too. She is a busy baby now, so keeping up with her once she starts crawling is going to be a challenge. But I'm so excited to go on this journey with her!

One of the best parts about parenting has been growing a greater understanding of how a parent loves their child. Scripture calls God our Heavenly Father, and we are His adopted children. While I've always known that was true, experiencing it is very different. Realizing how much I love my little girl helps me to understand on a deeper level the kind of love that God has for me. And I know that the love I have for Zoe still doesn't even scratch the surface of how much God loves me. Wild, isn't it? What an incredible gift.