Four years ago, I met the man who would become my husband. Over margaritas and fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant, we hit it off. Two years later, at a romantic dinner at the top of Hotel Paris' Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, he asked me to marry him. Of course, I said "yes." After all, we were madly in love. The following year included hundreds of hours of picking out flowers and dresses, cake tastings, D.J. samplings and the many other tasks of preparing for a wedding. More importantly though were our talks of preparing to expand our family. My husband had two sons, and we both knew we wanted more right away. We so badly wanted a little girl. For me, almost every night consisted of lying in bed dreaming of what she would look like and how life would be so much sweeter with her in it. Finally, our wedding day arrived, and the gates of heaven must have opened that day as there was no greater joy than what we felt not only from each other but from the many that joined us as we celebrated.

Newly wed bliss followed as did our growing desire for a baby. We tried and we waited. I'll never forget the day I found out. My husband was away on a night fishing trip, and I was home alone. So many of my friends had told me they "just knew" the moment they were pregnant, and I hadn't always believed them, but that night I knew it was true. I ran to the nearest drug store for a pregnancy test and could barely wait the two minutes before I looked to see the big, beautiful plus sign glaring back at me. Hours later, my husband arrived and saw a package awaiting him on the counter. He unwrapped it to find a framed picture of a baby with the words, "I love you, Daddy. Love, The Baby in Mommy's Tummy." We both cried, hugged each other. The Journey had begun.

I loved my baby the moment I knew she existed inside me. And yes, we got our "she." As each month of my pregnancy passed, we both fell more in love with our baby. We talked to her, played music for her, anxiously anticipated every doctor's visit where we could see her move, designed her nursery down to every last detail, and did pretty much everything crazy-in-love parents could do. As I waited for her arrival, I began to think about how much I wanted her to know later in life that she was wanted. I wished she could be aware of every bit of joy we were feeling and know that it was all for her.

Nine months later, our dreams came true as our Lainey Love entered the world and our hearts. Nothing could have prepared me for the joy that overwhelmed me the moment I saw her. She was mine... and she stole my heart. It hasn't even been three months yet, and her birth seems so long ago. Of course, the love has only become greater and stronger since then. As I remembered how much I enjoyed hearing my parents talk about how they prepared for my birth when I was a child, I wanted something Lainey could have to keep that would represent all of this. I decided to create a children's storybook for my daughter, documenting my pregnancy and her birth. Now I love to look back through "The Story of Lainey Love" help me to remember that incredible feeling. I can't wait until our Lainey is big enough to sit on my lap, blankie in one hand and her cherished book in the other. We will read her the story of her life - how she was wanted, how she was anticipated, and how she is loved.