that glorious day.

Two days ago, we had all of our families + closest friends come together as we made the big announcement of whether there was a little boy or a little girl growing inside of Mama B. Instead of calling our potential son a boy, we referred to him as a beast, and instead of calling our potential daughter a girl, we referred to her as a beauty. The theme of our big event centered around my childhood + forever favorite movie, Beauty and the Beast, and we decorated with all things from that beloved Disney classic. The main attraction for the afternoon was the beautiful, more-precious-than-anything mirror that once belonged to my great-grandmother, Ma, that laid face-down on a table in the center of the room. Just like the Beast, whose only way to see things was through the magic mirror he was given when he was cursed + transformed, our way of finding out what our bundle of joy was depended upon what the mirror showed us. With all eyes on us + smiles bigger than Texas, we both held the mirror and turned it over. Once we learned which silhouette was on the mirror + enjoyed a few seconds of celebrating this new-found excitement between just the two of us, we turned the mirror around to reveal what we had seen. The silhouette revealed that we were expecting a beast, and the entire room burst into cheers + smiles + clapping + fist-pumping! My heart was racing like never before, and I haven't stopped smiling + giggling + crying tears of joy since.

Our incredible friend, Caitlin, captured every bit of our reaction in still frames for us to keep + treasure forever. Here are scenes from the moment I found out that I would fall in love at first sight with another Mr. Bargeron in just four + a half months:

Now that we know we're having a baby boy, becoming daddy + mommy is so much more real now. It's the most incredible thing in the entire world to pray over our sweet little one, calling him by name, and asking the Lord to raise him up to be a man of strength + dignity + honor + integrity who fears of the Almighty God. I pray for us as future parents as much as I pray for our baby. There is nothing else in the whole world that I want him to know than that he is forever + unconditionally + relentlessly loved by the One who knew him before he was ever formed in my womb, and I know that the first place he will see that love of the Father is from us, his daddy + mommy.

Our unlike-any-other Baby B is now called by his name, and though we debated keeping it a secret for the duration of the pregnancy, we made the executive decision to announce it to the world so that y'all can rejoice even more with us. Although I'm sure plenty of people have had his name many times over the course of time, I can assure you that there has never been another boy quite like ours. Braxton Michael Bargeron will be one of a kind, folks, and we can't wait for him to be used in mighty ways in the days to come leading up to his birth + for the rest of his life.