Surprise Surprise!

1 Samuel 1:27-28 (NIV)

²⁷ I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

Well, I guess it’s time to share our exciting news.

In December Ella will welcome a baby brother!  I’ll give you a minute to pick up your jaw…

It has been pretty funny to watch the reactions we get as we’ve told our friends the news.  Some just stare at us, as though they have to gather their thoughts before they say anything.  Others are clearly trying to hide their shock as they wish us congratulations.  But most just drop their jaw and stand there.  It’s hysterical.  I think a majority of people thought we were finished having kids.  I have to admit, there were times I thought we were finished having kids.  Yes, I am at “advanced maternal age” (my doctor just calls it AMA to make me feel better), and yes, Ella is 6 years old, but we’re still bringing another sweet baby into the family and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

This has been a subject of prayer for many years.  In fact, since Ella was born we’ve been praying about whether or not to bring another child into the family.  God has already blessed us so much by giving us this new baby.

Ella is so excited she can hardly stand it!  She has prayed for a baby brother or sister nearly every night for 3 years.  She would watch shows where one of the characters had a baby brother or sister, and tell me that if she was a big sister she would help me too.  She would bring me clean diapers and help feed the baby, and she would play with the baby if I had something I needed to do.  For a long time she was afraid that she wasn’t going to get one.  We had many conversations about how we can ask God for things, even good things that we really want, and sometimes He still says no.  Ella would say, “But I’m a nice girl and I will be a good big sister.”  And we would explain that even then, sometimes God says no.  When we told her the news, one of the first things she did was look at me with a huge smile on her face and say, “Mom!  God said YES!”  Every single day she kisses my tummy and talks to the baby.

Specifically, Ella has been asking for a little sister (she says that boys can be too wild).  Joe and I tend to be a couple that likes to be surprised with the baby’s gender (we didn’t know Ella was a girl) but since Ella wanted a little sister so badly, we felt like we needed to find out the gender so that we could fully prepare her in case it was a boy.  We had talked to her a lot about how this could be a boy and would she be just as excited if it were a brother?  She assured us that she would be just as excited because all she really wanted was to be a big sister.

Joe wasn’t able to attend the ultrasound with Ella and me, so it was just us girls in the room.  Fortunately the tech looked at the gender first and when she told Ella she would be having a baby brother Ella let out a big “YAY!!!”  She talked for the rest of the time about her baby brother and what was he doing and where was his face so she could see him.  She also determined that she will be the one who picks out his clothes every day, but I have to change all of the stinky diapers.  She did, however, say that she’ll get me a clean diaper to put on after the stinky one is off.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared.  I miss the naivety I had with my pregnancy with Ella.  At that time I still didn’t know that bad things happen after 12 weeks.  I didn’t know that all babies weren’t born healthy.  I had heard of a NICU, but never actually known someone whose child spent more than a few days in one.  It had never crossed my mind that you can go into a hospital to have a baby, yet come home empty handed. 

We’ve already had this poor kid tested for everything, and I do mean everything.  But even after all this testing, fear still lingers in the back of my mind.  If we had tested Ella for all of these other diseases they would have also come back as “normal,” yet it was clear when she was born that things weren’t normal…not normal at all.  The EB results came back as 97% that it does NOT have EB.  That is great news that we were thrilled to hear, but I can’t seem to get over that 3%.  We’re kind of known for falling into the 1-5% category.

Every day I have to remind myself to focus on the gifts.  For now, all signs point that we have been gifted a healthy, EB free baby.  For me, the ability to be pregnant again has been an incredible gift that I never thought I’d experience again.  Ella is a gift.  In spite of all of her challenges, she always has been, and always will be an incredible gift.  If given another child with health issues, this child will too be a gift.

That said, I pray every day…multiple times a day, that this baby is healthy.  I pray that he has the strength of his sister…strength physically, strength of character, strength in courage and strength of conviction.  I pray for a strong heartbeat.  I pray for strong skin.  I pray that he’s chunky (it would be really nice to have a kid and not worry about their weight 24/7).  I pray, pray, pray that he is healthy.  I ask that you all pray with us.

All of that said, we are THRILLED to have this precious new addition.  I get so excited to see him with each ultrasound and can’t wait to see his precious face in December.  I love each little kick and can’t wait until Joe and Ella can feel them too.  Of course since this is a boy it means that I get to go shopping for precious little boy clothes!  I’m excited to decorate his room, and Joe already can’t wait to coach t-ball.  We are so thankful to the Lord for blessing us with this sweet boy!