L.O.V.E. just doesn't cut it

Before I was a mom, I heard mothers everywhere, including my own say that the love one feels for their child is unlike any other love they ever knew. I was envious of that love and wondered about how it was even possible. Like so many things in life, infertility and childlessness leaves you with a weird sensation of not truly believing something without experiencing it. Needless to say, when Raylen came to us I was anxious to feel this love and almost tried to make it happen on my own. I did love her immediately, but truth be told, with the speed of our situation and the events surrounding her adoption, I was numb and couldn't feel much of anything.

But now, after a year of chaos, our life has developed a routine and now I have learned to relax as a mother and really let myself feel what is developing between my daughter and I. Even at three, Raylen has a deep understanding of what the word love means...and the word L.O.V.E that we commonly say just doesn't cut it. No, she loves out loud, the way I remember my dad loving and the way I am learning that our Saviour loves. Passionate, unbridled, curious, physical and most of all LOUD. I can feel that love in my heart now for her and it shocks me everyday that it has grown again when I thought I had reached the peak.

This photo is one of my favorites of her because it captures her sweet spirit. She was tired of me posing her and she was ready to go play, but she didn't complain and kept sitting there.