Author: Becky

Today I’m 23 weeks along, which makes me excited, because although it would be really scary to deliver at this point, there have been babies born at this stage who survive and go on to live healthy lives.

It’s another milestone.

And to celebrate, he got his coming-home outfit! Or. . . if not the coming-home outfit, at least a brand-new newborn outfit, just for him!

I had a coupon for $10 off a $10 or more purchase at Carters, which expires on Saturday. So I had to get something.

And I decided since it was kind of like “free money,” I could splurge and spend it on our last little baby. . . I even found an outfit that was exactly $10! so I didn’t even have to pay a penny.

So here you go, Braxton. Mommy got you a new outfit! 🙂

(Mara was excited about it, anyway.)

Mara (to me): I’m going to marry the most beautiful man in the world!

Me: Who is it?

Mara: He’s in the living room [going in living room]

Somewhere on the journey of motherhood, insanity becomes the norm.

You come to a point when you realize that things are so rarely as (it seems) they “should” be, that you begin to embrace things simply as they are. And at that point, very little your children do or say will phase you. It is, after all, your new “normal.” You start expecting the . . . un- expected . . . if that’s possible.

Whenever it’s quiet while I’m making lunch, I start to wonder.

So I turn to my 2-1/2 year-old son, who is playing ever-so-nicely by himself in the living room. “Where’s Mara?” I asked.

“She’s upstairs,” he says, without even looking up. “She’s tied to the changing table.” As if that were the most normal thing in the world.

Maybe that should have worried me. But I’m a mom. This is MY normal.–Your kids say things like that, don’t they?

Besides, I don’t hear any screaming. How bad can it really be?

I am curious though.

Going upstairs, I find my daughter. And yes–she’s tied to the changing table. She was wearing her Lowe’s Home Improvement apron we got at one of those Kids’ Project Days, and Micah apparently had used the strings in the back to tie her to the changing table. It was some sort of Peter Pan scenario, involving pirates, of which Micah was one.

I had to untie her, so she could come down for lunch.

Later (same) daughter calls to me, in the most endearingly chipper tone, “Mommmmee! I have a sur-PRISE for you!–It’s in the potty!”

I pause. Not sure if I want to know.

Then I take a deep breath and ask, “Is it . . . poop?”

“YES!” she exclaims, as if I’ve just given the winning Jeopardy question.

“Yes!”

I’m a mom.

Welcome to my world.

That’s the day we will find out whether Baby #4 is a little boy or a little girl.

All my life I wondered. . .  who will I marry? where will we live? how many children will we have? will I have little boys?  little girls? both?

So, as I told Daniel, this is kind of the last piece of our “puzzle.”

Ever philosophical Daniel told me that was a rather simplistic view of life. Life is made up of much more complexity than who your spouse is and how many children you have and what their gender is.

And (while. . . yes, he’s right–life is so much more complex than that), there’s a sense to which it still seems like the last piece of the family puzzle.

I can’t wait.

Just a day and a half!

At our last ultrasound, one of the techs said that of all the “wives tales” about predicting your baby’s gender, the one that seems most accurate is asking the older siblings what the baby will be. “What do your kids think the baby will be?” she asked.

Of course, Carissa (who will be just 16 months old when the baby is born) doesn’t seem to understand anything at all about the new baby, let alone have the ability to say “boy” or “girl” yet.

Mara insists it will be a boy.

When I started to tell her that it might be God’s plan for us to have another little girl, she jumped right in to say, “Let me pray right now: Dear God, please let the baby in Mommy’s tummy be a little boy. Micah would be so happy to have a little brother! Amen!”

And when I ask Micah, “Do you think the baby in Mommy’s tummy will be a little boy? or a little girl?” he promptly replies, “A lollipop”–every time.

Here’s hoping Mara’s prediction is closer than Micah’s!

We’ll find out on Friday morning!

Am I inadequate for life’s challenges?. . . Are you?

I’m a mom of a 4-year old girl, a 2-1/2 year old boy, a 1-year-old girl, and #4 is due in July. Sometimes simply the logistics of caring for several at this age,  coordinating schedules & naptimes, changing diapers, finding time for housework and personal Bible reading and trying to have people over–not to mention reading to the kids or teaching them to share or training the baby high chair manners!–can be overwhelming.

At church we are going through 2 Peter. Very early in the book, Peter tells us that God has given us “all we need for life and godliness.” All we need.

Not just for life. But for godly living.

He did not say that we will never struggle. In fact, the entire book of 1 Peter was written to address Christians who are suffering. It is assumed that we will suffer. And with that understanding Peter tells us: God has given us all we need for life and godliness.

We need to rise to the challenges we are facing, confident that God will give us the grace and strength that we need (2 Corinthians 12:9; Isaiah 40:29), His wisdom when we ask (James 1:5), and then we can find our peace in His promises (Philippians 4:7) and in His mercy, which is “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-24).

Great is His faithfulness!!