Big Surprise #2

Dear Readers,

I have another secret to share with you...can you guess what it might be?

Several days before Christmas we discovered, with generous amounts of shock and awe,

that we will be adding another child to our family!

It's funny that we always talked about having 4 children when we were dating, but after having 3, felt that it was a bit more work than we had anticipated!!

Now it seems we will be achieving the original goal, in spite of our best efforts!!

There are some positives which I thought of right away:

First, 4 is an even number, as you know. It should eliminate the need for one child to be left out or fought over, as does happen occasionally. Just the other day Mekaia and Lesina were fighting over who would get to play with Matalena. This problem will be eliminated.

Also, there will not be an empty chair at the dinner table, for now we will fill them all. That problem averted also.

Mekaia will not be lonely in his room anymore for he will have to share it too!

And if I keep my kids home to school them, they will socialize each other!!!

To be honest, there were several weeks of difficulty trying to wrap my head around this new reality. I am somewhat ashamed to admit I almost went through a 'grief-like' process...denial, anger, depression and acceptance. It sounds so shallow, especially when I consider the many women who would love to have a child but cannot. Over the past weeks I have moved to a place that is more thankful and trusting, which is much much better. New life is always something to be thankful for, and I know that I can trust our family to God's hands. Our lives, possessions, and priorities may not look like everyone else's, but really that is what I've always fought AGAINST anyways!

This year is going to be challenging and exciting, but I am hoping that God will continue to push me out of the status quo and into the life He has for me. And I know I'll have to rely on Him because there's no way I can handle all the challenges of Surprise #1 and Surprise #2 on my own!!