Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby. . .

Jody and I decided while we were still dating that 4 was a good number. We wanted children fairly close together, around 18 months apart, but God had a different plan for us. Out of the blue we found out we were pregnanct in June of 2002. It was a tough pregnancy that ended up with me on bedrest for the latter part of the pregnancy, but all is well and Emma Marie was brought into our lives in January 2003 (2 weeks early)! We decided it was time again and tried for many months to conceive, we very so happy when we found out we were pregnant in May of 2004. It seemed like a normal pregnancy, but only God knows why that baby was not to be and I had a miscarriage on July 4th, 2004. We grieved and waited until we felt we were ready emotionally and then tried again. After months of waiting we were very apprehensive to find out we were pregnant in February 2005. It wasn't until after the first ultrasound (at 10 weeks) where we saw the baby moving and the heart beating that I felt "ok" about accepting we were having another child. As the weeks went by and from the doctors reassurance the pregnancy seemed to be going well! We waited to tell anyone because of the previous pregnancy, as many of you know I'm a worrier anyway :( The pregnancy turned out to be a beautiful baby girl named Anna Virginia (after my grandma), born in October 2005 (3 weeks 1 day early). She is such a joy in our lives, and a blessing for a woman who is now 5 months pregnant and chasing around a 3 year old as well. God truly has given us two gifts that we cherish every day. We were amazed to find out in January of 2006 that we were expecting again! I still felt apprehensive telling anyone until after we had had the ultrasound. We had the first ultrasound and everything looked good, we were expecting our third child in September of 2006! We waited a long time to tell anyone about this pregancy too, because of my second pregnancy and also because Anna and Baby #3 were going to be so close together. Our apprehension was shattered when we told my family, who reacted with pure delight at the news of a new little one, no matter how close it was to Anna! We then told friends and received the same reaction! We have had some negative reactions, like "WHAT?" or "Isn'a that a little close?", but we have realized that children truly are a blessing from God and He ultimately decided the number and gender of children we were going to have! This past year has definately thrown us for a loop, but as the saying goes "God is good, all the time and all the time God is good!"