And then there were three…

I ‘officially’ met my husband six years ago this past January. I technically knew about him a year and half before, but that is a whole other story that I plan to tell later. We came face to face with each other at the top of a staircase in the student union at the university where we attended and I knew right away that God had some pretty special plans for us. I am actually that girl who called a friend to say “I think I just met my husband,” after our first encounter. Fast forward…we dated roughly a year and a half and have been married almost four and a half years.

Our Wedding Day - Aug. 6, 2006

 During one of those crucial conversations when we were engaged (for those of you who are married and/or engaged, you know the ones...topics include: money, faith, politics...the one’s that can make you sweat a little), we discussed a possible time line for adding children into the mix and our thoughts on exactly how many little ones we foresaw being in said “mix”. When we walked down the aisle and said our “I do's” we had planned on waiting to try for a baby until at least our fifth year of marriage since we were relatively young (21 going on 22). We have always continued to be on the fence about the number of babies, some days it is two and on days when we have had a little too much caffeine, we become a little over ambitious and we discuss possibly having three.

Well no surprise, we did not make it until our fifth year of marriage, but our precious bundle of joy was not a surprise either. Soon after our third anniversary we began talking about trying for a baby, even though it was not what we had originally planned. Both my brother’s and their wives and my husband’s brother and wife started families in the last year and a half and I definitely had baby fever. The funny thing was that the contagious fever was also caught by my husband. In the beginning weeks of August 2010, we talked and prayed together and decided that we had peace on the subject and we would try for the next two months. If we were unsuccessful at the end of 2 months we would stop and continue to pray and try a little later down the road. The Lord definitely knew the desires of our hearts and according to ultrasounds and the due date we most likely got pregnant on the first try, consequently my husband’s birthday! How is that for a birthday present!?

27 weeks pregnant

 Our son is now 8 months old and it feels that he has always been a part of our lives. I would not trade our lives for anything, but today I was thinking of some of those random things that I miss from our days as a duo. In no particular order here are a few…

1. Sleeping in past 7 am….uninterrupted sleep….okay, just sleep.

2. Leaving the house at the drop of a hat with only my purse in tow.

3. Staying out late (late = past 7:30 pm)

4. Flushing the toilet in the middle of the night…our house is very small and we do not chance waking the babe.

5. Less laundry.

 On the other hand, here are a few things that I would not trade about being a family of 3…

1. The equal partnership that my husband and I have when it comes to taking care of the baby. He rarely complains about and most often offers to do things like change a dirty diaper (cloth, folks), feed the baby breakfast or dinner, and assemble a new toy.

2. Waking up with both of my guys in the bed (becoming a weekend tradition in our house).

3. The special moments while nursing my son…how he stares up at me and strokes my chin and hair.

4. The inspiration my son brings to me each and every day. I know this is also true for my husband. He makes us better people.

5. The gratitude that I have come to understand through being a mother and even more importantly, a woman of faith. Not only has having a child made over our lives, it has also made over my heart in ways that I cannot even explain. My priorities have shifted and for the better.
 
Sometimes we lie in bed at night and recount our days as a couple and many of the fun things that we did, places we went, and freedoms that we enjoyed, but then we remember the precious boy that is asleep on the other side of the wall and our reminiscing is replaced with prayers of thanksgiving and excitement for what the future holds for our family of three.

Kristen

The TT