A New Day In The 'Ville

I took the holidays off from a lot of things the last couple of weeks, including blogging. But I'm back and rarin' to roar in 2009.

A lot of things have happened since the last post. Christmas was one thing of course, as well as a round of bowl games on TV and more Cowboys disappointment. New Year's Day is somewhat anticlimactic now, so I was pretty much ready to get back to work by the time Jan. 1 rolled around.

I might as well go ahead and release this little bit of news we found out over the holidays. It's been trickling around for the last couple of weeks and I'll go ahead and put the rumor to bed so to speak -- we are expecting again. Number four is due to arrive the first week of August or so.

I boldly predicted following Abby's birth two years ago that she was our third and our last. So you can imagine the shock of finding out that indeed Jeannie was carrying our fourth child. We found out ourselves about 10 days before Christmas, and a trip to the doctor a couple of days later confirmed it.

I must admit it was a kick in the gut. Not that I don't or won't love this child with all my heart, because I will. It's just that, well, this particular news just doesn't fit my plan, you know? Three kids is enough nowadays, really. Especially for a guy who's about to hit 40 and a wife who had no desire to endure another nine months of pregnancy.

Yes, I know how pregnancy happens. Birth control is quite expensive nowadays, and we threw everything but the kitchen sink at prevention I guess short of abstinence and surgery, which we looked into but just couldn't pull off financially.

But the shock of the news kind of wears off gradually, more and more with each passing day. I find myself getting ready for the fourth child now, although somewhat slowly than the previous three. By the due date I will be anxiously waiting for and ready to love and raise this one too as best as I can as its father.

God has shown me over the last month a lot of things. Going back to that not fitting into a plan thing, that's pretty much how He works in our lives. Our plans are not His plans, after all. Our thoughts are not His thoughts. There is a reason why this little one growing inside Jeannie's womb is there. He or she wasn't planned in a traditional sense of expecting, but with each passing day we are becoming more excited and more expectant.

I finally came to the consideration -- and it's very humbling -- that we are expecting again because God chose us to be this child's parents. It's sometimes as simple as that. To be honest I wasn't all that fired up about considering a third child, long before Abby was actually concieved. That can be readily observed by the nine-year layoff between Melody and Abigail Grace.

But Abby is the apple of our eyes, just like our older children are. They all have their own little special niche in our hearts as their parents, and I would not trade any one of them for all the gold in the world. They are as much a part of my life as the breath I take every day. Number Four will be also, and to a certain extent, already is.

God chose Jeannie and I to be parents. It's a little different take on our adventure into parenthood, which started nearly 12 years ago with Coby. The previous three we pretty much asked God for, and He gave. This one, He gave on His own, for whatever reason. And we are happy and honored to be given that responsibility, and the chance to love and cherish another precious child.

So the next seven months or so will be filled with all the usual things. We are a high-risk pregnancy because of age, but none of that matters to us because God is in control no matter what our age. Heck, Sarah had her first child, Isaac, when she was nearly 100 and he turned out okay in Genesis. 40 and 37 is child's play.

Thank you, God, for Your confidence and the honor of Your gift.