It was inevitable. With all these babies being had in our neighborhood, our church, and our family, I am starting to feel the slightest twinge of baby fever. I want a little one of my own. I want to decorate a nursery and pick out baby names and make homemade baby food. I want to know what it feels like to love a child in ways that I can’t even begin to imagine now. And hearing my brother talk with such tenderness about his newborn daughter has made me excited to see what fatherhood will look like for Shane. I can’t wait to see him change diapers and rock our baby to sleep and eventually throw the baseball around with our future son or daughter. And yet… I am so not ready yet for the responsibility of parenthood. I have no doubt that the joys will far outweigh the sacrifices, but I am still a very selfish person – I like operating on my own schedule. I like taking naps, going out to dinner on a whim, having a clean house. These things don’t necessarily have to fall by the wayside when a child enters the picture, but they certainly become more difficult. And are we financially ready for a child? Can we afford for me to leave my job for a significant amount of time? And what about that trip to Europe we want to take within the next year? Won’t that be difficult with an infant? So many questions still… And so for now, we will wait, and pray, and plan. And dote on all these new babies around us!
brieanne says:
i feel ya! i think you just have to pray on it and then just take the plunge. as my sister and brother-in-law came to realize, you’ll never be 100% ready (especially financially), and at some point you just have to do it and have faith everything will work out. baby fever is quite contagious! i already warned my sister i was going to be a baby hog…
April 11, 2008, 8:03 amNatalie says:
You will never be ready. Even with the third, it’s still like, holy cr*p, can I really do this? But God doesn’t give us blessings we can’t handle. It will be some of the most striking sanctification as you are called to parent a child, they are such little mirrors revealing our sin. It has taught me to understand joy better, to understand patience, and love, but most of all how my relationship with God the Father has been so much more profoundly revealed and understood through me becoming a parent. Oh, and did I say FUN? Totally the best thing ever. I enjoy so much more of life showing my kids the abundance of what we have been gifted and seeing their joy has reinforced it all the more.
April 11, 2008, 7:41 pmPat says:
I must say it sounds like an excellent idea to me!! You and Shane will make wonderful parents and I will be such a proud Grandma.
April 12, 2008, 5:33 am