"that is brand new information"

dear sweet baby Hope,

my beautiful first ever niece. you are currently twisting and turning inside of your mama's tummy. its 1 am as i write this to you, and my guess is you are keeping your mama up. little does she know how much you will be keeping her up over the next many, many years. your name means so very much to me. because with your arrival you bring so much hope. i can still remember exactly where your mama was sitting when she told me she wanted to have a baby with your daddy. and it was a long road to get to where we are tonight. oh little Hope, you have been prayed for, you have been dreamed of, you have been loved deeply before you were formed. what a wonderful example of how much God loves us! because He loved us before we were even formed. and we can see such a clear example of that in you! so many of us loved and prayed for you before you were growing in your mother's belly. but we wanted you, we knew you- even when we didn't know you. but we loved you.
your parents are very special people. you will be a joy to your mother, and the sunshine for your dad. and what's more, they will love you, and care for you, and teach you about the One who created you.
soon you will be here. soon we will see your beautiful face, and we will hear your small cries. soon you will grasp your mother's finger, and look into your father's eyes. soon we will get to love you on the outside, and we have so wonderfully loved you on the inside.
i am so thankful for you little Hope. because i know what i learned when i became a mother, and it was forever changing in me. when i held your big cousin campbell for the first time, i was just overwhelmed with love. not for him- i mean i loved him- but i was overwhelmed with love for the Lord. i knew how much i loved my son, which is just as much as your mother and father are about to love you, and as i held him i realized, God loves me more than this. even MORE than this- in fact so much, that He sacrificed His son, for all of my sins, so that i could love Him forever in heaven. that i could be a child of God, that i would be loved and could have a deep relationship with my Father in heaven. and my dear sweet baby Hope, your parents are about to experience that on a level they cannot even imagine.
you are about to change so many lives, oh Hope, how the Lord has used your little life for so many years even before you were in existence. you are blessing beyond belief. a little piece of God's goodness.
as much as i cannot wait to meet you, and see your little fingers and little toes and watch you nurse on your mama's breast, i cannot wait to see you laying across your mother's chest, and watch the joy of the Lord come over her. i cannot wait to see you cradled in your father's arms and see him connect with His Father even more.
oh sweet baby Hope. we are ready to meet your beautiful face. we are not ready to love you, because we already love you.