Tilly's Best Friend

You'll start to discover an overall theme to my baby blogs.

I have one lucky little girl on the way.

It overwhelms me sometimes. Tilly will be born to two loving parents. She will be smothered with love by all her family. She will know she's important and cherished and special each day. She'll have the encouragement to pursue and explore whatever her heart desires.

That feels like it should be ordinary, but I know in our world that it's not.

One of the greatest gifts of this entire experience is that I get to share it with my best friend, LJ, who's five weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy. We always joked about synchronizing our pregnancies, but this just sort of happened, and I don't think it's happenstance.

For whatever reason, the Lord knew we'd be better off experiencing this simultaneously. We compare symptoms. Make perfect shopping buddies ... err, enablers. And really, if you've got to gain 25-35 pounds, it's a little easier when your best friend is doing it, too.

Deep in my heart, I always felt that LJ and I would not have the same gender. That's about all I had right. I thought she was having a girl, and I was having a boy. I got those both wrong.

Our dear, sweet friend Knox Benjamin Taylor is due July 4. Exactly five weeks before Tilly is due. And LJ is going to be a wonderful mother to a little boy.

Knox is already such a blessing to our family. It's like Tilly will come into this world with a built in best friend. After all, they'll have to like each other because they're going to be forced together a lot. I can't wait to see these two playing together at the beach or splashing around in the swimming pool in the summers.

We've already been eyeballing coordinating Kelly's Kids outfits. After all, LJ and I have been known to coordinate (unintentionally) a time or two.

Gosh, we were so young. And tan. And blond.

This was the summer LJ was studying for her boards, and I was working nights at the newspaper, and all we did was hang out in her parents' pool! ... I digress.

As part of our baby preparedness countdown, LJ kicked our baby besties off to a good start with their first coordinating outfits.

These warm my heart! I can't believe that in a few (fast approaching) months, there will be adorable little children romping around in these outfits.

Our family can't wait to meet our new best friend!