Inside Lively's Nursery

For those of you that are curious about how Lively's nursery turned out, here you go! I am one day past my due date, and still anxiously awaiting her arrival. I have nested to the maximum capacity and needed something else to occupy my time and mind while I wait for her to decide to come meet the world, so I thought I'd share some pictures and explain some of the projects I did for her room. 

Her room is a light pinkish/purple color. I decided right away that I wanted it to be very girly and a little shabby chic. The first of many projects that I worked on was her bedding. I sewed teacup/floral inspired crib bedding which included: a ruffled crib skirt, crib bumpers, crib sheet, and crib quilt. This project took me a few weeks to complete, but I saved at least $250 by making it myself. The cost was only about $150 (compared to the $400 I would have paid for custom bedding). I am really pleased with how it turned out. 

Her dresser/changing table was my second project. I really wanted to redo an old vintage style dresser and put a changing pad on top to serve as a dual purpose piece in her room. I found this dresser on Craig's List for $50. It was a yucky yellow/gold color, so I just sanded and painted it a bright white. I love how it turned out. 

I also did a little lamp redo. The blue teapot lamp on the dresser was a gem I found while thrift shopping with Brett. It started out all the wrong colors and didn't have a lamp shade, but it worked and I knew that a little paint and creativity could make it perfect for Lively's teacup/floral inspired nursery. I chose a robins egg blue color to paint the base of the lamp, and found an inexpensive plain lampshade that I covered with white/cream roses. It turned out cuter than I imagined and gives off just enough light when its night time in her room. 

A little story about the antique rocker in the corner... This rocking chair was my grandmother's. Growing up, she was my only living grandmother, and we lived right down the street from her, so we were pretty close. I think I got a lot of my creativity and love for old/antique pieces from her. She died a couple weeks before I moved to Dallas for college, and when asked if there was anything I wanted from her house, I chose the rocking chair. I always thought it was beautiful, and being a girl who knew one day she would want to rock her babies in it, I thought it was the perfect piece to choose. I think its sweet that a little piece of my grandmother is in her room. 

In the photo above, there are a lot of small projects I did to pull her room together: A silver platter I found at a thrift store with magnets on it to display photos, the "L is for Lively print was given to us from Brett's mother and I found the frame for it while thrifting, the bow holder frame I made from a frame I found thrifting that I painted and glued strips of ribbon to the back so I could clip the bows on them for easy access/display, the headband peg-shelf-thing was another gem I found while thrifting that we just painted bright white, and finally the shelving unit was mine that we found for $16 at Salvation Army that I used when Lively's nursery was my office/craft room, it used to be just the exposed wood and we painted it white to match the other furniture. 

As an artist, I had to paint at least one painting for Lively. The lyrics I painted are from a song that ministered to my heart throughout my pregnancy, and the verse I wrote around the edges was the inspiration behind her name and the prayer we spoke over her from the beginning. 

And finally, one of my favorite pieces from Lively's nursery, her mobile. This piece came from China. I purchased it when I was on a mission trip there in 2010. It originally was something you would hang over a doorway (like those beads they had in the 70s), but I remember thinking one day it would make the perfect mobile for a baby. I simple inserted a wooden hoop in the top of it to make it round and added ribbon to hang it from the ceiling. I love that it ended up going so well with the theme and colors we chose for her room. 

Hopefully, my next post will be introducing our baby girl to the world and sharing our birth story. Not too much longer, Lively girl... We can't wait to meet you. 

~Brandi

Behind The Name

So many times over the past seven and a half months I have intended on writing a post about my pregnancy. Due to overwhelming experiences I have gone through over the entire course of my pregnancy, I failed to do so. I plan on sharing more in detail the story of my pregnancy/birth once our baby girl arrives in November. Today, however, I wanted to share the story behind the name we have chosen for her. 

Prior to discovering that we were expecting, I prayed quite specifically for our future children, and very intentionally asked the Lord for a daughter. It was such a surreal moment sitting on the doctor's table looking at our baby and hearing the sonogram tech tell us "It's a GIRL". For me, it was like the Lord was sweetly whispering to my heart "I hear you". That was such a gift for me spiritually at that time in my walk with the Lord. I needed to know my heart's desires were seen by God and that He did indeed care about those desires. 

We had both a boy name and girl name picked out prior to finding out the sex of our baby... just to be prepared. Before I was pregnant, while on Facebook, I read a story that touched me. I had liked the Christian artist Jimmy Needham's fb page, so his posts would pop up on my newsfeed periodically. Jimmy had written a post about the story behind his daughter, Lively's, name. Jimmy and his wife, Kelly, experienced a miscarriage in their first pregnancy. After going through this difficult experience, they were blessed to become pregnant again. After finding out they were going to have a girl, they chose Lively as the name to speak LIFE over her not only throughout the pregnancy but throughout her life as well. I automatically loved the name and the story behind it. When we discovered that I was pregnant, I too wanted to speak nothing but life over my baby and knew that this name just "fit" our baby girl. I have always loved the verse John 10:10 in Scripture which says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." The middle name took some time to figure out, but honestly did not take much debate between Brett and I. I remember texting Brett and said, "What about Hope for a middle name?" And he simply said, "Okay." I, of course, have big dreams for our daughter and the work she will do for the Kingdom. I think "Hope" is such a big piece of the gospel and that she will indeed bring hope to those she comes in contact with. So that's our side of the story...

Yesterday, Brett got a text from his mom who shared some very interesting information about our baby girl's name that we didn't even know. While reading her Bible, she came across something incredible in 1 Peter and texted us this verse: 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." 1 Peter 1:3 KJV

How crazy is that?! Our baby girl is certainly a gift from our Lord, but I had no idea her name was written in His Word thousands of years ago. I gotta say I teared up when I read it. Not only did the Lord hear my prayer for a daughter, but HE named her. Such wonderful confirmation of who He says she is: Lively Hope Gilpatrick. I love her name and I cannot wait to meet her. 

-Brandi

Excited, Excited!

I have been super eager to post this. It's been sooo hard to keep it quiet. Yesterday, my amazing hubs became the Student Pastor at our church, Stillwater Community Church, in Rowlett, Texas. We are beyond excited for this new adventure in our lives and feel privileged to serve the Lord in this capacity.

Brett and I both surrendered to God's call into the ministry as teens. It has felt like such a long journey to get to this point. It almost feels surreal. However, something I've realized along the way is that it isn't our occupation that qualifies us as ministers of the Gospel. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. God's calling has nothing to do with occupational status or promotions, but rather it has everything to do with the people God has called you to. Jesus was a carpenter, yet his calling was to disciple. The Lord is looking to use each of us to share His salvation with those He has positioned around us. Sometimes He places specific groups of people in our hearts for us to pursue like: teenagers, children, the elderly, widows, orphans, young women, or even people from a specific ethnic group or foreign country. Despite the different people, age groups, and ethnicities, the call is the same: Reach, Teach, and Multiply. These three simple words make up our church's mission statement. I am so excited to get to continue our ministry journey at a church that truly understands the responsibility we have to disciple others.

Another exciting announcement is that I have been chosen for an internship at Buckner's Humanitarian Aid office. I'll be starting that this week, and I am so pumped! Buckner is an adoption agency and a missions organization. I've been interested in serving in some capacity at Buckner for the past three years. I'm so excited to have this opportunity. We ask that you join with us in prayer for these ministry opportunities and that we would be obedient to the Lord's voice and steadfast in the calling we've received. 

With love,

Brandi