Blessed

***Before you start reading, please be noted that I am NOT pregnant.  I would hate to give you a heart attack for nothing.

Anyway...

People have been asking me if I'm ready for baby number two yet.  The first time a friend asked me that it was like she had just splashed a very cold coke at my face, with ice no less.  Wha-, wha-, what's that you say?  Baby number TWO?!  I just had this one!  The thought was ringing in my head because I was too stunned to utter the words.

Baby number two...  I hadn't given it much thought because it just seemed like such a foreign idea!  Like we're talking about traveling to the planet Mars.  I feel like I had just been wheeled out of the delivery room yesterday!  But then again I guess it's not entirely true when I say that I haven't thought about baby number two at all because on days when Ethan is especially draining I do think to myself about number two--the fact that I'm never having a baby number two.

Baby number two...  I guess the words don't seem completely impossible.  After all, we have successfully landed a Wall-E-look-alike robot on Mars (which is very cool), right?  The thought of once again holding a brand new baby that belongs to me makes my heart flutter.  Besides, Jake and I have always known that we want more than one child.  Plus, Ethan loves kids and he's so good with them.  He will be a wonderful big brother.  My very own little sister is the best gift my parents have ever given me; I'm sure it will be the same with Ethan and I would hate to rob him of all the wonderful time he could've been spending with a sibling by waiting too long.

Jake is seriously going to have a heart attack when he reads this post.  My mother, too.

I'm not saying that I'm ready for baby number two right now but I'm not throwing up at the thought either.

I'm just grateful that we live in a free country and that we can decide for ourselves how many children we would like to invite into our family.  I don't think that enough of us think of this as a blessing when we really should be grateful for the opportunity.