Blessed Henna Belly

As a way of celebrating this baby and this pregnancy my friend Victoria blessed my belly with a beautiful henna design. There are old traditions and superstitious reasons women used to henna their bellies in pregnancy, but for me it was about celebrating this gift of life. After lossing babies during past pregnancies I know how precious a gift it is to carry this wee one and I wanted to acknowledge that. I asked Victoria to include in the design 5 flowers for my 5 living children and 3 butterflies and 2 doves to represent our 5 babies already in heaven. I also asked her to include the Hebrew words: Love, Joy, Compassion, Peace and Strength. These are attributes I have been praying God to bless us with this pregnancy.

He we are just beginning:

Almost done (from my view):

Done:

And then she added some gilding paste for bling:

My friend Erin hung out with us while Victoria did the beautiful henna and then took several belly pictures for me to treasure and remember, she calls this the goddess pose .. I love it!:

If you are interested in some more information on belly henna and some more beautiful bellies please visit this link: http://www.hennacaravan.com/pregnancy.html   The dark paste stays of for several hours or over night and then dries and falls off. An orangish brown stain remains and darkens over the next few days. It lasts 2-3 weeks. I just love how pretty it makes my belly feel!

Here is what it looks like 24 hours after applying henna:

 

And this is how it looks 48 hours after applying henna: