Announcement

=======================IT'S A BOY!======================

Yep, that's right! There's a 15 oz little man in my belly (at least as far as modern medicine is able to tell). So Susanna is going to get a little brother, and we will have a son. I'm excited, but also don't quite know what to think about the idea of having a little boy in the family. I mean, I'm the oldest of 4 girls, so I know girls. But boys are a whole new territory. I have no idea what to expect. When Susanna was born, I was worried about being an incompetent parent in general, but as far as teaching a girl to be a girl, well, I'd seen it done several times and I had some ideas as to how to go about it. And I know how girls generally think, how they communicate, what they need, because I am one. I suppose the downside to that is that it's easy for me to think that raising a girl is no big problem and I tend to look to my own strength and skills to do so, rather than leaning on God's grace and wisdom. But this time around, the basic parenting stuff is the part I'm not so worried about. I've got a little bit of experience in that department now (although I have plenty more to learn there, too!). This time it's the raising-a-boy-to-be-a-boy part that I don't have a clue about. I have enough trouble figuring out how to understand the way my own husband thinks and feels and communicates and what he really needs Add to the gender difference the fact that a small child of either sex is generally verbally incomprehensible, and, well, this will be a whole new learning experience for me! None of this is to say that I'm not happy to be having a boy. And in many ways, I'm excited about the new challenges and chances to learn that God will bring into my life through this. I just need to trust Him for wisdom to train up a godly man and the Holy Spirit to make it happen! And I suppose having a husband who happens to have been a little boy once, too, won't hurt either!

We're going to wait a little to start calling him by name, just incase we change our minds in the next 4 months, so that surprise will have to wait. Stay tuned...

P.S. Lest I forget the most important part, he is also a very healthy looking little boy and growing at exactly the right rate. Thank you, Lord, for a healthy child!