Remembrance

I am kind of addicted to gallery walls.  I love the depth and complication they bring to a room while being confined to a single space or wall.

The problem is I want them in every space, on every wall.

The collage over our couch has moved with us and morphed into what it is in our last 3 apartments.  That alone makes it kind of sentimental to me.  Then there's the fact that it's our life story displayed in one place.  Our most special moments - dating adventures, getting married, graduating, pregnancy, and baby - are there.  And they're all mixed together, instead of being displayed as a progression of events, which I like. 

This collage is new to us - I just took out all of the black frames from the existing collage and moved them to the kitchen.  I really like this one, that all of the frames are bigger and it's simpler to observe. 

I also accidentally arranged them so that it frames the chandelier when you look into the kitchen from the living room - kind of a bonus. 

I realized this morning, though, that my favorite gallery wall is the one that took the least amount of planning and effort.  These frames hang above the dresser we use for Atticus's changing table in our bedroom.

None of these are professionally taken.  No beautiful scenery. But my sweet, sweet boy is pictured here, experiencing his first few days of life.

I would never want to relive having a baby in the NICU, but I also miss those days so much.  Such a transformation happened in Michael and I as we became parents.  I kind of only ate pop tarts except for when my mom or Michael would intervene.  I couldn't really process what had just happened.  I spent literally half of my 24 hours every day nursing him then walking down the hall to pump so he'd have milk at night.  Iced carmel lattes somehow lifted my soul without fail, every single one.

So now I'm really glad that these photos are hanging in our bedroom.  On kind of a special wall that not everyone gets to see, but that I get to see daily.  This collage serves as sort of an alter for me, a reminder of what the Lord has done, moving my heart to praise.  In fact, I think that's why I love all of our collages.  

I've told Michael that, in seeing how God cared for us and so intentionally shaped our path over the past year, I want to write it all out on a wall so that I never forget what God has done.  So much provision.  So perfectly put together that I (a planner!) could never have imagined.  We have never been in want.  Maybe I'll record the details of that story here someday.  For now I hold it closer to my heart and just savor the Lord's intimate goodness.  He knows us so deeply.