A Gift from Me to You — The Ivy Nest

Welcome, Friends!
I am so thrilled that you've found your way over to The Ivy Nest. This blog has been on my heart for awhile and is truly a passion that, for the longest time, I didn't even know I had in me.

My desire was to create a space where my thoughts could feel free to spill over onto the keyboard, a place where I can share light-hearted and practical DIY projects, as well as the ins and outs of our journey. Life is both messy and beautiful and I plan to be as transparent as possible while sharing about both. I hope that you will join me!

Today is Launch Day for The Ivy Nest, but it has so much more meaning for me than just that. Today is our precious daughter's fourth birthday in Heaven.

In 2013 we found out that we were expecting our first little one, a girl, who we named Savannah. About halfway through my pregnancy, Savannah was diagnosed with a serious neural tube defect which meant that she was not expected to survive long after birth. We chose life for our daughter; which meant carrying her to term. At 40 weeks we were blessed to meet our sweet girl face to face. While her little heart only beat outside of the womb for a few minutes those beats left such a huge impact on our lives!

I could share about our journey with Savannah all day long, but today I want to share about her legacy. It still amazes me how Savannah, in her 40 weeks of life, continues to leave such a mark on me, and the world around. I am drawn back to this picture I have had in my head since carrying her...one of a cross-stitch. The front is where the image is, you can tell what it is and it's perfect. While the back is a tangled mess of colors, knots, and unrecognizable shapes (If you've ever seen a cross-stitch you'll know what I'm talking about). Our journey while carrying Savannah was just like the back of that cross-stitch; confusing at times, messy, and we couldn't see the whole picture of what God was doing.

I say all of this to come back to today, October 9th, 2017, her fourth birthday, and the day The Ivy Nest is launching. God has slowly been revealing Himself to us through the loss of our little girl, and we have found His silver lining in the midst of our deepest grief. We are starting to see bits of the front of our cross stitch and it is indeed beautiful. Savannah has brought out a side of me that I never thought I would be brave enough to share; she is the reason I am writing today. While I would of course trade all of these blessings in a heartbeat to have her back, it is so sweet to see her legacy.

Happy Birthday my beautiful Savannah Joy!!!

Thank you for teaching me to love with my whole heart, and that life is too short to be anything but real, fun, and REALLY FUN!