"Our Best Christmas Present Ever"

Kellah Grace Young

Our precious little girl is here! She is the best Christmas present we could ever ask for!
We are delighted to welcome her to our family and to introduce Kellah to you all.
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers throughout the pregnancy and especially these last few days and weeks leading up to her arrival.

I wrote this before Kellah was actually born, not knowing when I would get the chance to blog and express my thoughts and feelings via the internet once I was a mother of two. So some of this will apply to the time before her arrival and some of it deals with explaining how we chose her name and the prayers we have for our new baby girl.

With that said:

I am a planner, and I NEVER would have planned to have a baby in December (or November, for that matter). The holidays make life so busy and I didn’t want any child of mine to have to compete with all the chaos and craziness that takes place between Halloween and New Year’s Day. I think birthdays are extremely special and like to make as big of deal as possible when celebrating my child’s birthday. So again, I didn’t want my child’s birthday to be anywhere near a major holiday, especially ones like Thanksgiving or Christmas. But here I am having a baby in December. And I couldn’t be happier! Little Kellah has come at just the perfect time, and I am so very blessed to have this holiday baby in my arms.

Last year at this time, my heart felt empty and void. I was experiencing grief and sorrow I had never known, nor ever wished to encounter in my entire life. I was asking God “WHY” and left without an answer, except that somehow this would all work out for His glory and my eternal good. While I did find comfort in knowing that God is both in control and a good God, I was still searching for relief from my pain. I was scared, angry, frustrated, confused, disappointed, and had a whole host of other emotions as well. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and let life pass me by.

My precious Coralyn kept me from staying in the depths of despair though (and Lawrence too, of course). She brought such happiness to our lives. Her innocence of the situation brought peace. Her laughter and giggles brought joy. Her new accomplishments allowed for celebration in the midst of mourning. And slowly but surely, life began to return to “normal.”

With some hesitation we began to hope and dream for another baby. Fear and doubt would creep into my heart daily as I wondered if I would ever be able to have a safe and healthy pregnancy again, would ever have the privilege of welcoming another child into the world. God graciously allowed me to become pregnant right after my 27th birthday though, and we were delighted! God went a step further in blessing us, however. Not only did He give us another child, He orchestrated everything so that this baby would be born within days of the time we miscarried. Total redemption! I was blown away when I figured out my due date. God is so awesome! I love how He cares about the tiniest of details of our lives. I love how He can turn tears to laughter, mourning to dancing. And so from the beginning of the pregnancy, I was excited to see all that God has in store for this precious child.

But still, questions remained. Would the same tragedy happen all over again? As each week passed, I grew more and more confident that all would be okay. Every time Satan would try to worm his way into my mind and heart, God would give me verses from Scripture or encouragement from friends. I was able to fight back and come out victorious against Satan’s attacks. Now, here we are just days (I think) from meeting our precious little baby. She has been healthy the entire pregnancy. We haven’t had any complications. Everything looks good to go for the birth. All the supplies are ready. We are just waiting now, waiting for God’s perfect timing yet again.

I don’t like waiting. I am not good at it. I get very impatient. But through all this God has been teaching me to enjoy where I am at, to take in all the “little” moments He gives me each day. Baking with Coralyn, reading books to her, making crafts, having the opportunity to stay at home and just love on my little girl (who is growing up way to fast). I will never get this time back. Once the baby arrives, life will be forever changed, in a good way, but still never the same. Instead of getting impatient or focusing so much on what lies ahead, I need to appreciate what I have now. And boy am I blessed! These past few weeks with just Coralyn have amazing, and hopefully we have created some special memories.

I am ready though, I think, to become a mother of two, and make even more memories, with both of my lovely little ladies. Not only am I ready to welcome this new baby to our family, but to share her with you all. I am so glad that she will have so many wonderful people in her life, to help her see Jesus in action and hopefully bring her to know Him in a personal and life-changing way.


So without any further ado, we would like to introduce you to
Kellah Grace Young!

We picked her name a long, long time ago…before I was even pregnant with her. When we chose her name, we didn’t know exactly what it meant. But of course, God knew. And as usual, He works in mysterious ways, and the meaning is perfect for where we are at in life, and perfect for this little girl, our Christmas baby, our most timely present.

We have three criteria for all of our children’s names: has to come from our family, have a biblical reference, and be unique.

*Family: Coralyn is named after Lawrence’s side. (Lynne is his mom’s middle name. It is also his sister’s middle name. And our niece is Katlynne.) So we decided our next girl would be named after my side of the family. My mom’s middle name is Estella, so we took the “ella” part to create our own unique name of Kellah. At first, we were going to spell it Kella, but just recently we chose to add the “h” at the end. The past few months have been kind of rough for us with our foster care experiences, financial situation, stress at work for Lawrence, and the like. Through it all, God has been so faithful and good. He has shown us that He is with us every step of the way and will always take care of us. He has given us peace that passes understanding. One Sunday while at church I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with the demands of life, but the words of each song kept reminding me of God’s power and strength, of the hope I have in Him. Once again, I was overcome with a sense of peace, as if God was helping me breathe and let out all the tension. It was as though He was allowing me to say “ahhhh” in the midst of the unknowns that were causing my fear. Lawrence was deer hunting that weekend, but I explained the situation to him and we agreed to add the “h” to the end of Kellah’s name, seeing as how she is God’s gift to us and has brought us such relief and peace during these uncertain times.

*Biblical Reference: Just like Coralyn Ruth, Kellah’s biblical reference is in her middle name Grace. Simple, yet so profound. God’s grace is a mystery to me. We are so undeserving and yet His love for us never fails. Plus, He lavishes His grace on us so abundantly, not only in the gift of His Son, through whom we have salvation, but also in our daily lives as He protects us and provides for us (often way more than what we really truly need). It is only because of God’s grace that I have life…and hope and joy and peace.

*Unique: We have never heard of another Kellah. We couldn’t even find the name Kella in most of the baby name books or websites we searched.

So, that is how we picked Kellah’s name. The meaning is pretty cool too. Like I said, we didn’t know the meaning when we chose her name, but God did. And it couldn’t be more fitting.

Kellah means “brave warrior.”

We have had to fight against Satan on various fronts this past year. More than ever we have become aware of the spiritual battle that is going on in and around us. God has helped us be more than conquerors though and come out on top against that nasty devil! We pray that our little girl will also fight hard in this epic battle against evil and sin and Satan. We pray that she will stand firm in her faith and come out victorious, putting Satan in his place and letting him know that the Jesus in her is greater than anything he can possibly throw her way.

We also pray that she will boldly stand up for what is right and good once she is in school. Whether she befriends someone who is not very popular or goes against the crowd making herself not very popular. Perhaps she will speak up when a teacher asks about how the world began in science class or share how a Bible verse relates to a moral lesson an author was trying to communicate in book they read. Or maybe she will refuse to attend parties where alcohol and drugs are available. Hopefully, she will give it her all on the athletic field or on the theatrical stage, braving any fears she may have about performing in front of large crowds or comparing her abilities to others. Her battles may come on a more personal level as she works hard to do her best in the classroom, especially if learning doesn’t come easy for her. Whatever the case may be, we pray that Kellah will be a brave warrior at her school.

Kellah’s middle name is Grace.

Like Coralyn, we want Kellah to be a “go-getter,” to love life and adventure, to take risks, to be curious, and to make the most of every moment. But coupled with this tenacity, we pray Kellah will have a quiet grace to her. That she will be a leader by example, not necessarily because she is the most outspoken person in her class. We pray that she will have a sensitive spirit, one that allows her to observe and understand the needs of others, the little things that may go unnoticed unless one takes special time and effort to see inside the heart of another person. We pray that Kellah will possess a gentleness that allows her to reach out to those who are hurting, to touch and impact them in a deep way, a way that leads them to Jesus.

Kellah’s is God’s gracious gift to us. After losing our baby last year at this time, we are blown away by God’s grace in blessing us with Kellah’s arrival, almost to the exact day of our miscarriage. He has turned us full circle, making this time that could have been spent remembering and grieving our unborn baby be a time of celebration and joy as we welcome Kellah to our family. Of course we will always mourn the loss of our child, but God has blessed us with another beautiful and precious baby girl. We couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present! So yes, our hearts are still saddened by what happened last year, but they are filled to overflowing with happiness and delight as well. In His grace, God has given us more than we ever imagined.

And so, this is Kellah Grace.
We look forward to watching her grow and seeing all that God has in store for this little miracle.
We are sure to be blown away!