Frequently Asked Questions, Part 2

Please refer to FAQ Part 1 if you are feeling exceedingly nosey about my family's current situation.

Q:  So, um, you're pregnant?

A:  Yes, we are pregnant.  Homeless and pregnant.  Just stick me barefoot on a street corner and I am a statistic.  We are about 16 weeks (4 months-ish) along, and should find out in a couple of weeks if it is a boy or a girl.  I feel fine, and have felt fine the whole time (I think God knew I could not handle morning sickness and everything else that is going on right now), except for very frequent headaches that I'm hoping has been a sinus infection that will clear up with the gigantic antibiotics I am taking now.  And, I have only gained about 2 pounds so far (that was SO NOT the case with my previous pregnancies, I had put on about 10 at this point with the boys).

If everything goes how Mandy plans (which would be the FIRST thing that has gone how I planned of late), the baby will be a scheduled c-section in the last half of March.  The actual due date (40 weeks) is March 31, but due to minor complications with my last c-section, I think my doctor is planning the delivery for a week or two before that date.  And because life is not complicated enough, Brandon will be leading a mission trip to Mexico over Spring Break the second week in March.  So if you're local and wondering how you can help us out, you can offer to take the boys for a day between March 7-March 14 so I can rest and try not to go into labor while Brandon is building houses in the barrio.

Q:  Aren't you just so so excited that this one might be a girl??  Aren't you??  Aren't you??  You'll get to dress her up in frills and pink and the hair bows!  Oh, the hair bows!!  You SO need a baby girl in your house.

A:  Um, wow, you (and almost EVERYONE I have talked to) are sure excited about the possibility of me having a girl.  Can I send not-sure-it's-a-girl to your house when she is 13 and having a girl-drama meltdown because the boy she thinks has nice hair loaned her best friend a quarter at lunch time and that must mean he does not like her AT ALL and how dare her best friend for cheating on her non-boyfriend like that.  

I don't know if I can handle a girl, and frankly the possibility of having one sends me into a near panic attack at times.  I'm sure it would be fine, and we would eventually (hopefully before she is actually born) become thrilled with the thought of having a daughter.  I have been practicing "being okay with a girl" by going to stores with baby clothes, looking at pink clothes, and trying not to throw up.  It's been very therapeutic.   We would also be thrilled with being an all-boy family.  That thought gives my heart a bit of piece in this moderately stressful season in our lives.  And, um, all the baby girl clothes are pink.  Really pink.  That nauseatingly pale baby pink.  I can taste the bile in my throat as we speak.

Q:  How do the boys feel about a new baby coming?

A:  It doesn't occupy their thoughts much.  Dane wants a baby boy so their will be three boys, and Aidan is ambivalent about the whole idea.  I'm grateful that I do not have children that wake up every morning and say, "How much longer until the baby is here, Mommy?"  Because, folks, it would be a long 5 more months.  Dane is slightly concerned that if it's a girl, we don't have any girl toys.  He wants me to go and buy the girl a Barbie.  Like, now.

Q:  So since you are pregnant, are you still planning to adopt?  Where does the pregnancy leave all of that?

A:  Read this if you are confused about this question.  The easy answer is, yes, we are still planning to adopt.  We have always wanted to adopt a child into our family, and we continue to rely on God's perfect timing in this.  The agency we are dealing with has put our application on hold until the pregnancy is over.  They say it is not psychologically good for the family to be in the midst of a pregnancy and an adoption simultaneously (um, especially for this family at this time, because excuse me, my plate is FULL).  And that seems like a very logical decision to us.  At the earliest possible opportunity, we plan on activating out application again.  Brandon and I decided that if we have another boy, we will plan on adopting a boy, and if this baby is a girl, we will plan on adopting a girl.  We are hoping that these two children will be close in age, just as Dane and Aidan are close in age.  

Hope everyone is having a great week!  Congrats to my baby sister who closed on her first house today!