Have I ever told you that I read magazines backwards? And the last page of a new book first?
You could say that I’m terrible at surprises. Or impatient. Or maybe just dumb.
In any case, we peeked into the womb yesterday, and discovered that I am carrying our fourth boy in a row. I suffered a momentary pang, simply because it has been 8 years since girly daintiness came to visit, all afresh and pink, and seriously, I had the perfect name picked out!
Short-lived and very silly, these preferences we decide we have. Baby was beautiful and wiggly, smiling and waving, and I’m so happy he’s come to be. Who could begrudge a baby his gender? You’d have to be crazy.
Unfortunately, the world is crazy. Today I read this post, and it shattered my heart.
The other day I read this post, and it was equally as shattering.
Don’t read these posts if you want to continue in apathetic contentment. Don’t read these posts if you don’t want to change. I understand. Change is hard, and painful. Growth blazes new pathways in the brain and tears tissue in order to rebuild it stronger, but we need to be stronger.
If we are to fight the insanity of this world, we need to be stronger.
I love you, little brother!! Can’t wait to see the three amigos (2 uncles + nephew) tromping around together…eeekk! the adorableness!!!
Congratulations on your little boy! And, oh, how heart-wrenching are those other stories.
I thought all babies were perfect just the way they were born.
Congratulations (again!) on your baby boy! I’m expecting our Baby Girl #4 in September (We’re 4 for 4 now). Would have been nice to toss some blue laundry in with all the pink but I just can’t complain about sweet little baby girls.
Congratulations on your boy! I understand the momentary twinge ~ I felt it briefly, too, when I learned Joshua was not a girl ~ but who knows… maybe God’s going to bring some pink into your life via a different avenue (like how He’s doing it for me).
The orphan crisis is heartbreaking and I agree that we all need to be made stronger, but that means we have to be willing to truly open our eyes rather than pretend we don’t see the need that is all around us. I’m far from perfect in this arena, but as God moves us along in our adoption journey, He is opening my eyes more & more and I feel it is SO important to share what He is showing us. Thank you for linking to my post. Awareness is the first step toward change!
Thanks so much for this, Jenny… on a number of levels. My dear friend Missy wrote the first post (ah, you two should write beautiful best-selling books together, you both are so stinkin’ talented); it broke my heart. And we are in process of adopting a child, so my momma’s heart resonates with the last post… it gives a very real glimpse into the world no one sees or cares enough to see… and it’s one of the many reasons we’re heading to the third world to bring our own daughter home.
Congratulations on your waving little boy child!
Thank God you are bringing into this world people who (if you have anything to say about it) WILL care about life as God created it. Love to you.
Thank you for the link
I thought my daughter was a boy up until the day before I delivered her – and I really, really wanted a boy. It’s not that I didn’t want a girl, I just had to allow myself to grieve losing my dream of a boy. But, as always, God knew better. And I got a boy the next time, so…
I don’t ask this to be critical. But out of lack of knowledge. How do you answer those that say, “If you are so NOT apathetic about these abandoned children, why are you continuing to get pregnant with biological children and not spending your efforts, time, and resources to adopt?”
Again, this is simply out of wanting to understand your experience. I realize it’s none of my business, so if you don’t want to answer, it won’t be taken personally.
For years we were infertile and many would suggest the route to adoption as if we were going to Kroger instead of Whole Foods. It’s a simple decision, right? Well, no, it’s not. I always had a hard time addressing the casualness of how some folks look at adoption and wonder how you’d answer that.
I’ve never actually had anyone say that to me, lol…but if they did, I would simply state that there are many ways to help orphans and those who are in the process of adopting, and we do those things while at the same time welcoming as many biological children as the Lord sees fit to give us. At some point the Lord may make a way for us to adopt, and I would welcome that blessing as well.
MM, I can’t answer for Jenni, but I CAN tell you that she gives of her time, energy & money to help other families who are adopting. She has an Etsy store where she sells the jewelry & crafts that she spends her time & money making and 100% of the proceeds from those sales goes to my family’s adoption fund. She has participated in the other fundraisers that I’ve held on my blog and she has helped in other ways, too.
God tells every single Christian to help take care of orphans and Jenni absolutely is following God’s command to help. God’s choosing to bless her family with biological children does not mean she is not spending her effort, time and resources in helping OTHER families to adopt. She is. And that is obedient to God’s call on her life.
Jenni, I read both of those links when you shared them on FB.. Heart breaking.. SO sad.. I kept thinking during the designer babies, designer God piece about Seth.. How often the doctors tried to convince us we should pursue genetic testing, that there was something more “wrong” with him.. That I would do those 15+ months (pregnancy and the 200 days we had with Seth) all over again in a heartbeat.. how much my perception of God has changed and grown.. how that’s been through the “negative” experiences, the losses, in my life..
and yet “what it profit me to gain the world and lose my soul”?
Thank you for sharing those links.. Heavy stuff there indeed.
I know you love each little one the Lord has given you! The articles you reference make me very sad and they also make me tremble at the judgement our world deserves for its selfishness and empty justifications…what a terrible day is coming…
Congratulations on your waving baby boy! It will make hand me down sorting easier:)
It is beyond my comprehention that a woman( certainly can’t call her a mother)could terminate a pregnancy…but to kill a baby because it isn’t perfect is pure evil
Congratulations. Boy or girl, still a blessing. I have only four boys. No girls. To my knowledge, no more babies and my youngest is three, but I STILL get stopped by strangers who ask me if I wish I had a girl or if I am going to try for a girl… I always say it is something we have no control over, but your links made me reconsider my answer.
God chose the perfect family makeup for me. And I’m grateful.
How wonderful! Congratulations on a baby boy! So happy to hear the good news!