The day we found out about Evie

Hmm, it seems that I didn't write anything these past 3 days. The first two days, I forgot until I was laying in bed at night and had already turned my brain off for the day. Although, come to think of it, that would have probably made for some interesting writing.

Yesterday I was in such a rotten mood that I didn't think it would be good to put my thoughts on paper. Today is much better. We are celebrating Father's Day, since we don't get very much family time on Sundays.

In honor of Evie making eight months old on the 12th, I thought I'd share the story of the day we found out I was pregnant with her.

It was Valentine's day, and I was in the kitchen, packing lunches for the kids. We were getting ready to go to Restoration House, the crisis pregnancy center I have been volunteering at for the last three years. I was looking at my calendar, and I had the sudden realization that a few things were...off schedule... if you will. I was about 2 weeks late on my cycle. I looked down at the floor at my two kids, age about 8 months and 2 1/2 years at the time, and my first thought was "how could I be upset about more of this?" I think this was the work of the Holy Spirit, to be honest, because that quiet peace does not come naturally to me.

Fortunately, I was headed to Restoration House, which happens to have a cabinet full of pregnancy tests. I waited until everyone had left for the day, except for my friend who works as the nurse there. I asked her if I could take a test, because I didn't want to be stealing. Of course, she was very excited and about 5 minutes later we had confirmed what I already knew to be true. I was pregnant. We did an ultrasound and decided I must be 4-5 weeks along.

That night, when we were exchanging Valentine's gifts, I gave Dennis a card. In the card was a long letter, a positive pregnancy test (in a Ziploc bag. Kinda ew, come to think of it...), a sonogram, and these two quotes:

"How can there be too many children? That's like saying there are too many flowers!" - Mother Teresa

"Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth." - Psalm 127:4

I had predicted that Dennis was going to have to go for a long drive when he saw the test and sonogram. He handled it better than I expected. You see, we were about 7 months into the adoption process, and actively preventing pregnancy, or so we thought. Ha!

I look at my daughter now and I feel like she's a gift I don't deserve.

Don't get me wrong, we are extra actively preventing now, but I'm so thankful that God's plans are more powerful than ours.

Also, you should know that my super zen attitude towards our little surprise lasted about 2 days before it was replaced with straight up fear, which lasted until October 12, 2010, when I first saw her perfect face and fell completely in love.

Parenting three kids is like parenting one, only three times harder. I won't sugar coat it, but I will say that I consider myself lucky to get to live under the same roof as my 4 best friends.