For This Child We Have Prayed: Counting the hairs on my baby's head

Did you know God found my wedding dress for me? He sure did. Took me right to it! It was one of my first "It's a God thing" moments! To say I was excited would be putting it mildly. I think I walked on clouds for about two weeks after I found THE dress.

I had been on ONE shopping expedition with my maid of honor. That's all it took for me to know wedding dress shopping was NOT for me. I am a size 16. Every dress on the rack is a size 8 or smaller. You do the math. A watermelon is definitely not going to slip into a lemon. It was a nightmare. About all I could do was look at the dress and hold it up to me. The ladies at the dress shop were nice enough, but all I wanted to do was escape the embarrassment. I came home and cried. I already didn't want a big wedding to parade around in front of people and the thought of having to find THE dress for that parade was torture.

Somewhere in the middle of my crying fit to Jeff....somewhere between "Weddings are stupid" and "I am NOT walking down the aisle in a giant WHITE Macy's Thanksgiving Day FLOAT!!" Somewhere in the tears and fear of complete humiliation that was dress shopping I offered up a prayer to God. I asked Him if I HAD to do this just help me find a dress.

A couple of weeks went by. I was searching one night for a reception site on the internet when I saw the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. A girl was wearing it in her wedding video that just so happened to be at the place I was hoping to have our reception. I fell in love with it. It was exactly what I had hoped my wedding gown would be. We had a second shopping trip planned to a little shop in a small town outside of Columbia in couple days. I snapped some pictures with my phone. I knew I would never find THAT dress. My only hope was to find something similar. After all it was just some random girl I had stumbled across on the internet.

My mother, maid of honor, and I arrived at the little dress shop on a Thursday afternoon armed with my snapshots. I quickly showed the pictures to Jody, the sweet lady helping us. She had asked what type of dress I was looking for and I explained I had these pictures but knew the best I could hope for was something similar. She took one glance at the photo and said oh that's Susan and took off. OK? Every dress has a girl's name....so I assumed my dress was "the Susan". Wrong.

Not only did Jody proceed to pull MY DRESS immediately, but she explained that the random girl in my picture worked THERE. And Susan would be there shortly. WHAT? How in the world did all that just fall in my lap? Think someone is in complete control here?? You know it.

So I met Susan that day. She gave me all kinds of wedding tips and contacts. She set me up with awesome ladies to do hair and makeup for my wedding. She helped me find my perfect veil. And the dress? It wasn't a size 8 on the rack. It was a 10. I could actually try my dress on! I was over the moon.

God cared so much about me that He found my wedding dress for me. Ladies, God is in the business of "girl stuff". Dresses, hair, and makeup. He cares about what WE care about. He knows the desires of our heart and wants us to be happy. Our Heavenly Father cared so much about my wedding, my confidence, and my dreams that He went to all the trouble to take me 45 minutes out of town to find THE dress. Just as my earthly father wanted me to have the dress of my dreams, our Heavenly Father wanted it for me too! What an awesome God we serve that He would care about the details. He truly wants us to know we are His precious children, His wonderfully made daughters!

I am not sure why I was surprised. He loves us so much. He knows every intricate detail of what makes us. He tells us even the hairs of our head are numbered. I can not wait to try to count my future baby's hairs!! I want to know and love my child as our Father knows and loves us!! Oh to be that close to my sweet, sweet baby!

Today I know He wants us to know He knows us inside and out. He knows every activity we are involved in. His love for you and I knows no bounds and He will take every opportunity to show us that!