The Family Baby Boom

I'm overdue on reporting anything on here about the biggest thing going on in our lives in 2013...and, no, it's not breaking ground on a house. That project is still progressing but something else came along to take priority... a baby!  Here's the story as I told it to our family...

2013 was the year Mingus and I had high hopes for breaking ground on our future home in Knob End. While progress towards that goal still ensues, God has put a new and more important responsibility into our lives: bringing our first child into this world. 

The Peangling: Due October 21

Mingus and I have maintained Natural Family Planning through our marriage, always leaving the window open for God to take the reigns if his timing for kids comes earlier than ours. We were grateful to have a year to settle in to both married life and life in Clan Valley prior to having any ids. And while the goal of building a house prior to starting a family always won out with logic, I truly believe God softened our hearts to the idea of a child in the coming months before we conceived, so that his hand could guide us to this point with our hearts wide open to his will. Getting pregnant was not a openly planned thing on our parts, but we both knew that somewhere inside, while still scared and hesitant of the unknown challenges, we were excited about children of our own. Logic just told us it wasn't time. God said otherwise, and for that we are grateful. 

I shared our news with my brother and his wife, Nic and Michelle, the week after we found out ourselves. I knew the outlook for kiddos was sooner on their future radar than ours, but never knew the exact details of that timeline. Little did I knew they had already crossed the line into trying for a family; but little did they know, on that particular day, life grew inside Michelle as well. It was only after I had left Louisville for the week that they found out themselves. They did not immediately share their good news with anyone besides Jon and myself. "Preggers privileges" I suppose.
 
The following Friday was our first trip to the doctor for the official confirmation of our pregnancy. About the time we were leaving I received a text from my cousin and best friend, Jo, letting me know she was canceling her "St. Patrick's Day" gathering in planned for few weeks later. My immediate thought/hope, Mingus spoke for me: "Is she pregnant??"
 
Now, a little backstory... Since Jo and MJ's wedding, we have done much praying for each other as couples. What started as somewhat of a joke, became a regular thing for both of us. Jo told me back in the fall that, after a dream MJ had, the two of them had started praying for our baby. (The one that did not exist yet...) When I shared this with Mingus, he immediately said, "Oh yeah? They're going to put that on us, huh? Well you tell them we're going to start praying for their baby then!" And since, we have always prayed for our future children. With this 'joke,' Jo and I often spoke of when kiddos would come and how crazy it would be if we just 'happened' to get pregnant at the same time. Of course, in a more realistic outlook, we also always said that if it happened to one of us, it was going to be heavy pressure for the other to jump on board.
 
As it turns out, no pressure was needed. God did the work for us. Because of MJ and Jo's regular prayers for our babe-bo, we felt it was only fair for them to know their prayers were no longer hypothetical. I shared the news with Jo after we left the doctor and she called me in excitement. (Although, she was not in normal Jo-excitement voice level due to being at work and not wanting to cause a scene.) Jon took his turn on the phone to give her a message for MJ: "Your mission this weekend is to make a baby." She laughed. And laughed. We thought we knew why, but we did not.
 

Jo & MJ are due October 25
Michelle & Nic are due November 5

Her laughter came out of the joy and irony of Mingus's request: she already knew life was growing inside of her. A week later she and MJ had their first appointment and confirmed the pregnancy as well and I got the call the following Saturday morning to tell me what I truly think we could not have planned: she was pregnant as well!
It's been a fun few months of "Preggers Privileges" and sharing this secret among the six of us. (It has been oh-so-confusing keeping track of who knows about who and when you can talk about what!) I think I can speak for all six of us when I say, we are happy to share this news with the entire family, as we all know we will now be gaining an extra load of prayers and support for the coming months, as well as prayers and love for the new Clan babe-bos who will have the opportunity to grow up especially close.

This is the video put together for our Spring family gathering. We held a celebration for what would have been my Grandy-Bo's 90th Birthday. This is also when the three couples announced our news. 
 
Birthday Bash & Spring Celebration 2013 from Rita Harris on Vimeo.