The D'Amatos
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 
John 15:12 

TwentyTwenty

A Poem by Zach & Liz
What a wild and exciting year! 
Right before our first wedding anniversary,
we found out that a baby was near!

The pregnancy was definitely unique.
Most of it was spent quarantined at home.
What felt like a year was really just a week!
Playing word association as we reflect on this time
Depth, challenge, love, unity, and fun road trips come to mind.

Our bond strengthened and we became more in sync.
Good thing, because we became parents in just a blink!
Parenting has been an absolute blast,
far beyond anything anyone has ever told us in the past!

As we step into this new year, 2021
We seek God’s perfect will for our little family;
we know the ride is going to be fun!
May the Lord bless you and your family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Snippets of 2020

March 20th- Hearing Darian's heartbeat for the first time. It was magical. We were instantly brought to tears when we heard it. Oh how incredible it is to love someone so much before even seeing their face!

April 3rd- Then COVID-19 entered our reality! A quarantined pregnancy means a gender reveal on Zoom with our close friends and family. We were so thrilled to see blue confetti! Also, what a great representation of April..so much screen time! From distance teaching to online bible studies and hangouts. 

May 25th- Three months into quarantine and 6 months into the pregnancy, we were itching to get out of the house! We decided to go on an adventure and camp in Flagstaff, AZ!

July 18th- Our drive-by baby shower! This is never what we would have imagined our baby shower to be like, but it was a blast! The love from all of our family and friends was overwhelming! We feel like we hit jackpot with our friends/family! It was so nice to see everybody after being stuck at home for so long. With 6 weeks left to go in the pregnancy, we were even more confident bringing this baby into the world because we have such an awesome community of people around us. Shout out to Pauline, Mel Mel, Kana, and Anna for making it happen! 

August 25th- THIS WAS THE DAY...Our lives changed forever on this hot summer day. My contractions started at 3 a.m. I (Liz) was up all night counting the time between the contractions, and come on.. who could even sleep through those!? I let Zach sleep all night because I had a feeling this would be the day and he would need some good rest before meeting his son. When Zach woke up, I said "Babe. This is it!" Cue a frantic, but super helpful Zach and an irritable, but excited Liz. Let's just say I was a lot nicer to Zach after the epidural. We went to the hospital to see how dilated I was and I was admitted at 11 a.m. at 4.5 cm dilated! Everything was so surreal. Zach and I both agree that this day was perfect. We were in the middle of watching a cheesy Christian movie on our iPad when I felt a crazy amount of pressure and we called for the nurses at 6 p.m. The room became a whirlwind as the nurses and midwife rushed in to set up and after 10 minutes... there he was... on my chest! Our precious baby boy arrived.

(please read the following in your best Bruce Banner impression)

Darian Drake D'Amato
(TRIPLE D!!!!!)
6 lbs, 5 ounces
18.5 inches

Thinking back to our first night in the postpartum room makes us laugh out loud! We had no idea what we were doing, but we were doing it! All the research, mom blogs, YouTube videos, doesn't come close to preparing you for the first nights with your newborn. I mean, the preparation definitely helps! However, the switch from not being parents... to becoming parents overnight is unreal. It's beautiful. It's exhausting. It's joyful. It's scary. It's incredible.

September 8th- This was a snap from our first family walk in the neighborhood. Going on walks is definitely one of our favorite activities these days. My recovery was pretty quick and easy. Thank you, Jesus! The whole labor and recovery left Zach wanting more kids (let's just say he's trying to beat my mom's record)! Lol. We'll leave that up to the Lord to decide how many children he wants to entrust us with! Whatever the number, we are ready to give them all our lovin'! The month of September was a month we'll never forget. So much learning and growth took place in our little home. The days and nights were long. We were the most exhausted we've ever been, but also the most joyful. Grace upon grace upon grace was the motto for this month.

October 28th- The travel/adventure itch was getting to us again! We were ready to brave our first family road trip! We decided to go as soon as Dare Dare turned 2 months! We made our way to two national parks (Arches and Zion) and visited some awesome family friends in Colorado (shout out to the Rowe's and the Lowe's for your hospitality and love)! Our little guy was a rock star--sleeping on the road and being so flexible with being in different places every two nights. We pray that his low-maintenance, happy, and super chill demeanor carries on for the rest of his life. We're so thankful that Zach has a career that allows him to be anywhere on the planet as long as there is WiFi! What a blessing. Where to next!? 

November 8th- On our way home from Colorado, we both agreed that we felt the Lord emphasizing the word community to us. This year we've had a lot of time to deconstruct and rebuild our understanding of "church." We could no longer just fall into the rhythm of having it be a destination we drove to on Sundays, but challenged to embrace it as a lifestyle. So we decided to dive deep and strive to be the body described in Ephesians 4 with some friends of ours! It has already been such a blessing to our family. 

We look forward to how the Lord will reveal his perfect will for our family even more in 2021.

xoxo, The D'Amatos