From Here to Eternity {AKA, When You Find Out the Sex of Your Baby}

Guess what's on this week's calendar? That's right - only two more sleeps until we find out if our little  one is a girl or a boy! And I have been so patient.

Yeah right.

I don't think I've ever been so impatient in my entire life! Instead of using the phrase 'A watched pot never boils', I have coined a new expression: 'A watched pregnant belly will not tell you if it's a girl or boy.' Shouldn't we be able to just Google it by now?

Poor Joey. Every day for the past four months I have been in countdown mode and every night before we go to bed I make reference to May 30th. Things like "Did you know that in such-and-such number of days:hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds we'll know pink or blue?" "Did you know that a week from today we'll know?" "Did you know that the day after tomorrow I'll be able to say 'Did you know that tomorrow we'll know?'" You get the picture.

I do not even know how folks that wait until birth do it! Why must we know? First, Joey and I have never once considered this. Let me just share that Joey proposed to me a month early because the ring came in sooner than expected and he couldn't stand waiting any longer. I, on the otherhand, have the patience of Job course. So it's Joey's fault that we can't wait.

Predictions? I have no idea if I'm carrying low, high, out, in, a little to the left, etc. I don't really have specific cravings - salty or sweet. Some days one woman looks at me and says boy and one grocery aisle away I'm told girl. If I have to go with my gut, I would say girl - but really? Who knows? Joey says boy just because girl makes him anxious; mainly because he knows he'll be whipped and wrapped around that tiny little finger. {But, shhh...don't tell him I said this...I think he'll be whipped regardless!)

Things I am most excited about in finding out?

I want to say 'he' or 'she' and definitely not 'it'.

I want to buy something decidedly boy or girl. In a culture where everything is gender hazy there are few baby items that are gender neutral. So far, we can buy a thermometer and even that could be pink or blue.

Start moving forward decidely with the nursery.

Do we really care one way or the other? Nope! We just want to know one more thing about our baby's identity.

Did you know that the day after tomorrow we'll know?

Joy That Passes Understanding

I've been a quiet blogger over the past many months, but now I just can't be quiet any more. I've been wanting to write about our news from the moment we found out. We're pregnant! Our little one is due in October and we are beyond excited. This is something for which we've been hoping for a while now and I want to document every bit of it on this blog. However, there's been a pause each time I start this post.

This little joy that's poking me in my side at this very moment is also tied in my mind to another joy we lost. I feel that bringing up this life I'm carrying without bringing up the little life lost almost 10 months ago would be a sort of injustice. We lost a baby at a little over eight weeks this past year.

It's taken me 10 months to write that sentence. Not being able to write, at least in my case, is kind of a funny thing because all too often it's quite the opposite. I love journaling and getting my thoughts out in type or on paper. But in this case, where words may come off the tongue and disappear with a breath, the written word brings a measure of finality.

I will write about the experience of miscarriage one of these days as there are others who are going through or will go through the same thing. But it will not be today. Today is about two joys. One we were blessed to know for eight weeks and the second, 19 weeks and 3 days to date with an impending arrival of October 2013.

They are both blessings from the Lord; no matter the life span, each ordained by God with a purpose here on earth. Sometimes those purposes only make sense in light of heaven. The Lord's timing is perfect and always good.

Now, there are lots of good things in store for this blog. Much to share and much to ask. But for now, I'm just reflecting on God's goodness and grace.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. - Psalm 139:15