Made for a Princess

There is a sweet woman whom God has placed in my life, and with her, her sweet baby Leah as well. I first came in contact with her through a comment she left on one of my blog posts. I felt drawn to her family and knew I would be extremely invested in their lives even from hundreds of miles away.

You see, Kim is probably a lot like you and I...

She is happily married.

She has a adorable son named Bryce.

And she is getting to be very pregnant (no pun intended) with here baby daughter.

Sounds pretty normal, right?

Unfortunately, I have to add to the above, that her baby daughter Leah was handed the same diagnosis as my sweet Wyatt.

Thanatophoric Dysplasia. (For those of you that are new here, it is a rare and lethal form of dwarfism that effects all the long bones. What makes it lethal is that the heart and lungs will be normal size, but the ribs will be short and compressed. If the heart can't beat properly and the lungs can't expand, there is nothing that can be done medically to treat and save a baby with TD. The only consolation offered is the knowledge that we serve a loving God, who just so happens to be "the great physician" and can offer this nifty little thing called "eternal life".)

Kim is 30+ weeks with little Leah and my heart hurts for her family. I remember being where she is. I remembering wanting to stay pregnant forever so that I would never have to say good-bye to Wyatt... Then in the next breath I'd be begging God to just let it be over with because it was just too much to bear... and then, before the thought was even over with, be back to begging God to let me stay pregnant forever with Wyatt safely tucked inside my belly!

Guys, Gals, If you get a second, can you please head over and offer some encouragement and prayers... Just click HERE.

Anyways, as soon as Kim contacted me through my blog, I knew immediately there was something I was supposed to do for her...

I'd mentioned before about being upset because I didn't think to send in my wedding dress to have a bereavement gown made out of it for Wyatt. It was already too late by the time I stumbled across the idea. Well, it wasn't too late for Leah... Except, I didn't send my dress in anywhere. I tried it on (yes it zipped!) and I may have twirled around in my dress on last time before taking a pair of scissors to it.

Every last bit of the dress was made from my wedding dress with love for a sweet little girl. I've never felt more like a princess than I did in my wedding dress and it is my hope that Leah will be able to feel like a princess too.

Here are some pictures of the finished dress...
Here is Eli posing in front of the dress!


Here it is all cut up! (I have to admit I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach at this point)


Here it is Mostly put together...


The front still looks a little plain at this point. I wasn't happy! Not Princess-y enough...


And here's the bottom panel of the dress...


Here are some back views of the dress...



And here is one of Ansley's bunnies modeling the dress...



And here's what's crazy... Kim had no idea I tried the dress on a bunny to make sure it would work for sizing and so that I could get some pictures of it. I just read on her blog that they built baby Leah a baby bunny at build-a-bear!

There is still more to this story, but I feel like the rest is Kim's story to tell if she so chooses. But can I just say that God leaves no room in her family's story to even question that his hands are ever present and steadfast on their lives.

...And I'm still hoping Kim and her family get the miracle that ours hoped for!