The Girls' Favorite Christmas Gift

On the night before we were going to head off to Iowa/Minnesota, though it was only December 18, we had a wonderful time doing a special Christmas celebration at home.  We finished the Advent Calendar, put up the rest of the ornaments on our Jesse tree, and sang Christmas carols.  The girls had fun with all of the special events and though the clock was ticking (and much packing still needed to be done), we told the girls we had one very special Christmas gift to give them.

What could it be?  We started a guessing game.  Everyone made an (incorrect) guess.

Then, where could it be?  Again, good guesses were made, but all incorrect.  Not in the stockings, not under the tree, not hiding under the couch.

Finally, John said, "All right, I'll show you.  Are you ready?"

"Yes, Yes," they all chorused.

John slowly pointed in a circle around the room until his finger finally came to rest on my tummy.  Without John saying a word, Clara Anne "got it."  Her eyes got as big as saucers and she launched herself at me, crying and saying, "Oh mommy, mommy, MOMMY!"  Tears were flowing as she exclaimed, "It's just what I've always been longing for!!!"

So she was crying, and of course I was crying, and Chloe looked up with an absolutely horrified look on her face.  What was everyone crying about?  Christin didn't really know what was going on either!

In a minute we all calmed down long enough to share with the girls in plain English that yes, Mommy is going to have a new little baby!  The girls had known that I hadn't been feeling well, but never guessed the reason why.  But recently they had even been mentioning, at random times, how nice it would be to have four children.  Chloe was learning even and odd in math and told me how great it would be if we just had one more child in our family, then we'd have an even number!  One time we were finishing up shopping at Target and the girls saw carseats and said, "Oh look Mommy, if you have another baby then you can buy her a carseat here!"  Things like this kept happening and so it was so fun and special to tell the girls that they will have a new little brother or sister, Lord willing!

I am about 13 weeks now and maybe, just maybe, starting to feel better.  December was a pretty rough month of only doing what I absolutely needed to do...I forgot, literally forgot, how crushing the fatigue and nausea of early pregnancy can be!  Nausea has been a pretty constant companion but I am finding that if I eat enough, and rest enough, I do feel better.  But it varies from day to day...last week there was a day where I took three naps!  Yikes!  Thankfully, it is all worth it and we rejoice in this new little one.  We are praying for a healthy baby to make his/her appearance around the end of July.  The girls are over the moon and have had fun gleefully announcing the news.  It was very special to tell our families in person over Christmas and we are thankful that all seems to be progressing normally so far, though I haven't been to a doctor yet.  Hopefully soon--we have to get some details worked out with our insurance, etc first.

Praise the Lord for the gift of life!  We are so thankful for this new little one!  (And you know, we might be slightly crazy too.  What are we thinking, going back into the newborn phase again!)  But this truly is a gift from God and I am very thankful.  Rejoice with us in His wonderful plan!  Here's a picture from that special night when we told the girls the news.  What a joy!