something amazing....

So if you aren't within rooftop shouting range, you may not have heard, that we are PREGNANT!!!!!! i found out yesterday... i'm due Aug 11, REALLY hoping for a
girl. I'd forgotten what a handfull little boys are, but a boy would actually be
really cool too because Leify is such a MAN's MAN, that he'd have WAY more fun
with a boy.. and true to form, everyone is THRILLED except Leif, who won't even
entertain the idea of a baby other than him :-D


You so should have BEEN at the
dinner table when we announced it.... it was too funny, i was dropping hints...
i was like, tonight we brought home a pizza and i thought we'd stay up late to
celebrate! No one bit... then i was like, "I think we'll watch the movie "9
months" (WHICH by the way, if you don't remember is really NOT suitable for a
family audience in a lot of ways! eek!) and still nothing... and i was
like... anyone know what we are celebrating/?? and alex was like... uh... when
you found out you were pregnant with Leif?? and andy
and i LAUGHED, and i was like, close, but not quite... and he said, "when you found out you were
pregnant with ANNA? and we LAUGHED! finally Andy was like... how about when we
found out we were pregnant with a baby who's not yet born and doesn't have a
name??!!! it took them a while and then Alex screamed, "YOU'RE PREGNANT??!!! and
they all started SCREAMING! must have been a sight... SO wishing i videotaped
that!!!! and i have to tell you, my oldest two are already BABY'ING me, this is
going to be SO AWESOME! "Can i get you some water, mom? Let me take that
garbage out for you mom! LOL!!!!!!

My kids have been trying to knock me up for AGES! they have totally felt like it was time for a new baby to join our family. I was starting to wonder too if i was getting OLD or something... You see, we don't use birth control. I extended breastfeed all of my children, except alex, young and immature, blech! and the blessings of that are just amazing. Not the least of which is the delay in the onset of menses, which is AWESOME! I LOVE children, I completely think that children are a blessing and don't for one minute begrudge having them, but at the same time, i would NOT be a good mother having a child every year... its just me... and God KNOWS that, He KNOWS what i can handle and what i can't! Its amazing...

So having known i was pregnant for almost 2 whole days now, and having gone to MOPS and to the dr. (had a sinus infection AND had to figure out a way to get off my crazy pills quick without getting too bad of symptoms of going off the meds) and went to get a formal test at the lab, and so forth and so on, i'm already starting to get "THE COMMENT" it starts like this-

Them- You are pregnant! Congratulations! is it your first?

ME- No! its my 6th!

Them- Wow, that's crazy, 6 kids??!! how do you handle having so many, are you crazy? did you MEAN to do THAT? yadda yadda yadda....

Now, i know its a curiosity. The idea of allowing oneself to get pregnant 6 times is entirely foreign to our culture. HECK, i was there once too. A good friend of mine (THANK you SARAH!) really impressed on me a few years back, how i was approaching the whole birth control issue in the wrong way.

You see, i was buying into the common cultural viewpoint that children are a curse, that they are a burden, a waste of time, a hindrance to a career, a taker of resources, sanity, etc. However, Sarah showed me how GOD does NOT view children in the same way. In the Bible, children are NOT considered anything less than a gift. They were never given as a curse, they functioned as an ASSET, not a liablity. Now i guess, in our culture of excess, many people feel that children must have all this STUFF and that would indeed make them expensive. Andy and i have learned that to give up the opportunity for our own acquisition of STUFF has been so valuable a lesson to us. The fact is, the Lord DOES bless us financially, whenever we really have a NEED, He makes it happen, and sometimes there's even some fluff left over for fun, or specific fluff gifts. Through the years, as we've grown in maturity, frugality skills and increased income, we have become MUCH more able to handle our finances than when we even had ONE child. Of course now, we are in a tight spot, having had a few events transpire that really set us back, thousands of dollars of van repairs, alex's tonsils out, etc. and we are SCRIMPING till tax return time, which will exist solely to pay off CREDIT cards and bills. not our usual partial fun money, but the point is, we are so much more capable and better off NOW with more children. Its the classic paradox of when you follow God, He blesses you.

WE now do not see any real need to prevent children from coming to our family, if God opens my womb, though we had a struggle with my depression issues. I'm on a heavy duty antidepressant that i can't take early in pregnancy. But i know that God will provide. Hopefully among that which he provides will be patience and kindness to the "telling the family" moments... sigh... some of andy's family and all of mine will NOT be happy at all to hear our good news. That is our biggest struggle when it comes to pregnancy. They just don't understand us. How can you explain how you feel from this kind of worldview to those who buy hook line and sinker a worldly view that is the polar opposite of ours? Ah well... Cie La Vie...

later...
The preggo :-D