So beautiful! I've been waiting to hear his whole story, and it didn't disappoint at all. Thank you for sharing!

Beautiful! I have loved your blog for years and felt a personal twang when you announced you were expecting Peter b/c after a three year gap, I wasn't yet pregnant with number six and we were really discerning how open we should be. After a St. Andrew novena in December, I found out I was pregnant by the end of January and happily followed your updates, now just a few months behind you in pregnancy. I have related to so many of your emotions and am sure that will continue for the next few months, until, Lord willing, I also have a new baby in my arms. Enjoy these precious moments, rest, and know that we are grateful that you share these bits of your life and thoughts with us here!

Just beautiful, as always. <3

Thanks for sharing your beautiful birth story. I'm sitting here at 40+5 and beginning to wonder myself whether this pregnancy will end in a real baby! It is inspiring to see pictures of newborns right now and remind myself that it will all be worth it.
I realized as I was reading that I actually have a "Be Not Afraid" temporary tattoo like yours! I think I might put it on tonight.
Congratulations Mary on your 6th beautiful boy!

Mary, your story of Peter's birth was simply beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing it. How very blessed your entire family is! The smiles on their faces say it all... love, love & more love for this new little miracle. May God pour His blessings continually upon you all!!

I was on vacation all last week and am now just getting caught up on my emails and your birth story is so beautiful and amazing. (I might be crying now). Beautiful.

My husband and I have recently been praying about a home birth. We are 32 weeks with our first (so a little late in the game to be changing birth attendants and birth setting 🥴). In speaking with our medical staff, we have received the news that if we are positive for Covid-19 when we walk in to deliver, they will take baby away from us and I will be required to breast pump to only stimulate milk production..... This news pierced my heart as my husband and I have been diligently preparing for natural birth and have read so many things about the benefits of skin-to-skin, breastfeeding, etc. hours after birth. Anywho, Jesus has been moving a lot in this pregnancy journey, and your birth story truly gave me peace and courage about a home birth. Before we learned about these hospital restrictions, we were already struggling in communicating our birth plan to our doctor and compromising in areas that we convinced ourselves was fine. (My husband has become so frustrated that he mentioned we should “accidentally” have the baby in the car 😆). “Be not afraid” came up in intercessory prayer a few weeks back and has only now begun to hit my heart in a personal way me in realizing we could not only be “giving our birth away” but also “giving our child away” (in the event we tested positive). Then reading your story there is was again! - Be not afraid. Our daughter is named after the Holy Family - Josephine Marie - so we have deeply felt their prayers even though my trust in my Creator is truly truly lacking 🤪. Our daughter’s due date is quite close to the Feast of the Assumption as well. So we wouldn’t mind her arriving a little late if she would like to arrive on August 15th ☺️. So, thank you for sharing your family’s story, and praise God for the consolation I felt just reading this.