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Friday, January 22, 2016

A Special Christmas Present

I wrote the majority of this less than a month ago, and had planned to wait longer to post, but today being the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and seeing some of my dear friends at the March for Life, I thought it would be an appropriate time. I'm not standing out in the cold marching for the unborn, but I'm contributing in my own little way, I hope....


A favorite song of my husband and me, an old Bob Carlisle song (side note: I hear a lot about how my Christian music favorites are "ancient" from some teenagers in my house.) But I digress. It's called "Lately Dreamin' About Babies"

It's true. I've been dreamin' bout babies. for a while now. I know, I already have 5, how could I possibly want more?! I can't explain, except that, once you open your heart to life, and see the wonder of what God can do as a result, it's hard to not want to experience it all over again, morning sickness, labor, poopy diapers and all. Each of my children in their own unique way has added depth and beauty to our family. But for many reasons, we were putting family planning on hold, temporarily, maybe permanently. My health problems after the birth of Angel Boy were a big factor. I have been doing a lot better though, than I was. We have had some funny family jokes too over the years, about there being another invisible sibling. Often times my kids will accidentally set the table for 1 extra. And my husband would refer to it as "Aloyius". He would say "oh Aloysius needs some water." Sometimes Aloysius even gets blamed for stuff. Poor child. And then there was the "mistake" my husband made when he nailed up all the hooks for our Christmas stockings. He got done and said "Oh, I put 6 up there. instead of 5." I smiled in my heart. Every year we have put up an extra stocking, just, because. I started to suspect there might be a bun in the oven this Christmas, and could hardly WAIT to test. It was constantly on my mind. Christmas day, ironically, my mom put this in my husband's stocking at their house:
Special Christmas Present on the Feast of the Holy Family!

Then on the feast of the Holy Family, I found out, I was in fact, expecting. I cried tears of joy! All current hardships melted away and nothing else mattered, except the new life God had placed inside me. Then on the way to mass that afternoon, I saw this:
Seriously. A Baby and a rainbow. Perfect. 

The only thing is, I had the girls in the car with me, could give no explanation of the reason for my tears, and had to keep a secret! Pretty much impossible with those 2. I managed to until New Year's Eve. We talked about how to tell the kids and my husband worked all day on a puzzle for them to put together that told them the news.  It took a while for them to assemble, but the final picture told them that number 6 was on the way. When they put it together, the Little Guy first said, "Wait mom, no doctor has said you're pregnant! what does this mean?!" and The Eldest who figured it out first, and had had his hand over his mouth for several minutes, said " (Little Guy), how many kids are in this family?" He answered "Um, 8?" Hilarious. I lose count too sometimes ;). Then it slowly started to dawn on each of them, and smiles began to creep on each of their faces. The Little Guy had told me a long time ago that he was asking God for me to have another baby every mass after he received communion, (melted this mama's heart). So he exclaimed, "Mom! God answered my prayer!" and Angel Boy said, "I love Babies! They are So cute!" We made an effort to keep it secret for a short while, but the next Sunday, Angel Boy blurted out to our youth minister "Mom's having a baby!" And during mass, The Little Guy kept pointing to my stomach over and over and back at the picture of Mary and baby Jesus on the program, and smiling. He is my baby that was born on this day, and ironically, he has been the most consumed with the growth of the baby in my womb, asking me almost every day "what size is the baby now mom? What's the baby doing?" But for those of you who have not picked up on it yet or been the recipients of excited siblings' hints, we are pregnant!! :)  

2 comments :

  1. Oh Virg, that is such exciting news! Congrats to you and C and all the kids!! :)

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