Where Are the Words?

I love turning to the bible and using it as one way to express what I'm feeling. There are times in my life when I need it to help me verbalize my fear or pain but sometimes I look to it to help me verbalize my joy. As a believer it is nice to turn to your book of faith and relate to the happenings of thousands of years ago. So this morning I read Mary's song of praise; the Magnificat. It is a stanza of poetry or song smack dab in the first chapter of Luke. She sings this after knowing she is carrying God's son, Jesus. It is beautiful:

⁴⁶ Mary responded,
   “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
    ⁴⁷ How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
 ⁴⁸ For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
      and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
 ⁴⁹ For the Mighty One is holy,
      and he has done great things for me.
 ⁵⁰ He shows mercy from generation to generation
      to all who fear him.
 ⁵¹ His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
      He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
 ⁵² He has brought down princes from their thrones
      and exalted the humble.
 ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
      and sent the rich away with empty hands.
 ⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel
      and remembered to be merciful.
 ⁵⁵ For he made this promise to our ancestors,
      to Abraham and his children forever.”

...it is beautiful but I don't know if it captures what I'm feeling. I am not carrying the long awaited Messiah promised to an oppressed people. I am carrying a sweet little baby girl and I have no clue what her destiny is. But I know that I have prayed for her and imagined her since I was a little girl. So I realize in the moment I'm reading this that my God is the God of right now as much as he was the God of creation millions of years ago and the God of Mary 2000 or so years ago when she was expecting a child. And while God and I have come to the understanding that the bible is a done deal and my chance to get in it has long passed, this is what my song of praise would look like:

Mandy responded,

Oh how my soul praises the Lord,
     How my spirit rejoices in my Savior!
That you have looked on me, your lowly servant girl
     And thought I might be worthy to carry and raise this child within me.
You who created the world and everything in it from void and nothingness.
You who carved rivers out of rocks.
You who shaped the mountains with your fingertips.
You who healed the sick and saved me from my sins
Have created this child from the very same power,
     though we think it is our own.
And you give us the responsibility,
     privilege, 
     uncertainty,
     joy,
     and sometimes pain
    of being this baby girl's parents.
Give us also strength,
     wisdom,
     patience,
     laughter,
     commitment
     to be this baby girl's parents.
Help us to raise her in your perfect love all of our days.
Amen.

I'm no poet but that's what mine would look like.

We're Having a Baby Girl!

It's a girl! And for someone who didn't care one way or another about the gender, I sure am excited! I've got a basket full of pink outfits and picked out pink paint for her walls. We found out almost a week ago but I have been too distracted to blog about it! The first picture is her profile and the second picture is the "money shot," that she'll thank me later for posting on the interwebs.