Betsy Grace Navarro

So, I'd like to share a few things about our latest and greatest: Betsy Grace.
I am head over heels for her. I am head over heels for all three of my girls. Each one of them are so special to me and for very different reasons. Jessica and I have a special bond because it was just the two of us for five years. She is mature and wise beyond her years. Ava and I will forever but heads but she is so full of life and hilarious to be around. And Betsy...well...she's a little miracle and a testament of God's grace in my life, Nate's life and in our marriage.

Nate and I have been through things that most marriages would not survive and sometimes we look at Betsy and see grace all over her because had we not persevered through the hard times, she would not be here.

She is quiet, so sweet and has a smile that will light up the room. Sometimes she just looks at me and I almost feel for a second that she gets it. She gets that she is grace and she gets what she means to me.

Here is a note that Nate wrote about her on facebook right after she was born:


Betsy Grace arrived on December 19th, 2009, three weeks early and right on time! She weighs 8 pounds 12 oz, is 21 inches long, and is a mama's girl for sure!

We gave her the name Betsy after Melissa's "gran" whom our entire family loves deeply. We gave her the name Grace because to Meliss and I she is a beautiful picture of just that.

Those of you that know Meliss and I know that our first 5 years of marriage have been a rollercoaster....and not a kid-friendly Disney World kind of rollercoaster.....more like an old carny rollercoaster that comes off the tracks and takes out the dude selling corn dogs and cotton candy......ok......bad analogy.

Our marriage has had some unbelievable highs: the greatest being the births of Ava and Betsy Grace, helping start a church that we love, and the friends we have made along the way.

We have also had some devestating lows...lows that most relationships don't survive...lows that have left friendships broken...lows that have forced us to cling to and belive in something that we have often been close to but rarely understood...GRACE.

To be brutally honest we found out "we were pregnant" with Betsy Grace at a time when we thought our marriage wasn't going to survive...

But we did...were here...she's here....and it's GRACE.

And so it takes a village......

Over the last week we have been reflecting not only on God's grace and Betsy Grace, but we have been blown away by the grace that has come our way through our families, our church, and our friends.

Melissa's family watched our girls while we were at the hospital.

Our jobs gave us plenty of time off work.

Many friends have come to visit.

We were given baby stuff galore....beds, bedding, clothes, changing table, diapers, carseat, and the list goes on and on and on.

We have been loved well by our families, our church, and our friends.Thank you so much. Your friendship and generosity has been grace to us as we welcome Betsy Grace into the Navarro family!

So it has been 7 years since I met beautiful Melissa Jones at The Blind Pig Pub on 6th street. I was a skinny kid with long hair who played in a rock band and she was the prettiest girl who ever gave me the time of day. We would stay at the bar till the lights came up, hit "the Onion" for some late night pizza, and talk for hours....blissfully unaware of what the future would hold...

My how things have changed...

I got a haircut,a job, and am not quite so slender...late night pizza has been replaced with late night diaper changing...and 7 years in we have 3 daughters, 2 dogs, a thousand regrets, and are currently in the market for a minivan...wow!

The pain has been real....but so has the grace!

December 28th, 2009 finds me grateful for the grace that has come my way through the unconditional love, forgiveness, and healing found in Jesus,through my best friend Melissa Jones Navarro,our daughters Jessica, Ava, and Betsy Grace, our families close and far, our church, and friends like you.

Hugs all the way around,

Nate