Oh Baby

We’ve always wanted a “big” family…big as in more than one or two kids.  We saw built-in best friends, family game nights, and fun family vacations that started with road trips of a filled vehicle.  Not to say that small families don’t have any of that, because they can, but we just envisioned a full house if you will.  I distinctly hearing one of my favorite priests in college saying, during a homily about married couples and the vocation of marriage that we should “populate the Earth with good people”.  To me, that meant having 23 kids…totally kidding, but it did give me the desire for a large family of 4 or more kids.  I wanted to help fill their Earth with good people.   Of course there are lots of factors going into how many kids made up our big family ideal – things like budget and fertility, both of which are or at one time were pretty sparse.   

We’ve also always wanted our kids to be close in age.  The twins and Sebastian are closer in age than we thought we wanted but it’s turned out pretty awesome.  So, since Sebastian is going to be two in a month, it’s been time to start thinking about the next little bean.  We have actually been discussing him or her for the past several months, thinking that if he or she could come along anytime after Sebastian hit two, that’d be just peachy.  Only we just weren’t sure how that little bean was going to get here.  For one, we weren’t sure if we were going to struggle to have more kids since we struggled with fertility for years before the twins came along.  Sebastian arrived without an infertility beat so maybe that wasn’t a struggle anymore, maybe it was.  We’ve been avoiding the marital deed during ovulation each month (we’re on the Natural Family Planning train…tmi for some of you…sorry!) so we didn’t know what would happen if we tried during that time or what.  But bigger than that, it’s been on our hearts to adopt.  There are lots of reasons why but one thing that has convicted me in that possibility is everything that has been going on with Planned Parenthood.  (If you live under a rock, they’ve been selling the body parts of the babies they’re killing…illegal and plain disgusting.)  I’m not going to step on a soap box about that but it’s made me realize for the 1000th time how much of a tragedy it is that we are allowing the murder of innocent babies in this country.  I ache for the babies and I ache for the mothers that are going through so much junk that killing the child growing inside their womb becomes a condolence and is “making it all better”.  I want to hold those moms and tell them it’s going to be okay.  There are so many families who are aching to adopt and I wish these women knew that; knew there was a better way.  Along with all the aborted babies and sad mothers there are so many children in the U.S. living lives that are filled with trauma, abuse, loneliness, abandonment, and zero security who are in foster care and/or waiting to find a forever home filled with the love they’ve never been shown.  It’s all just overwhelmingly sad to me and to us.  I want to take them all in but of course that’s an unrealistic desire.  But, taking in one or two isn’t.  

So, this past summer, we made the decision that we were definitely going to hop on the adoption track and that we were going to start looking into and starting the process.

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And you’ll never guess what happened…

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This:     
God’s really funny, isn’t He?

We are elated and so excited and laughing right along with Him.  And we’re still in shock too but mostly so, so happy.  Baby Tobin will be here in June of next year and we’ll have four under four for a month which is really scary and really fun all rolled into one little ball of beautiful.

I’ve been meaning to tell you all for over a month now but I had my heart set on a cute little announcement including Anthony and the kids, all with their respective numbers 1, 2, 3, and then new baby 4 but it was looking like we’d get that picture taken the day before the baby was born next summer so it’s just me and #4, taken with a self-timer during nap time.  Haha!

So does this mean adoption is out?  Nope!  Obviously we’ve had to set it aside for awhile but we still very much want to pursue it in the future.  We’re a little sad (but still very happy we’re expecting…don’t get me wrong) but God has shown us plain as day what His will for us is right now and we’re are just going to roll with it. 

Anyway, please keep us and this little bean in your prayers!  You can be sure that I’m offering up some of these wonderful pregnancy symptoms for you! 

Oh and if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been boring on the blog recently, well, now you know.  First trimester slothfulness.  It’s all over me…….

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Gorgeous print in the frame above is from Hatch Prints!

“How can you say there are too many children?  That is like saying there are too many flowers.”
Blessed Mother Teresa