I will soon be a mom to 4 kids. 13 years ago when the husb and I started our lives together, we always talked about our dreams.
Some dreams come and go. Some dreams never came true. Some dream, we will never give up hope on.
- We never lived in a loft with concrete floors. – Gave up on that after the 1st child.
- We never traveled the country in an RV.
- Our lotto numbers never seem to match the winning numbers.
- Our companies never went IPO leaving us wealthy.
- We don’t live in Austin.
- We don’t have a few acres with only a few neighbors that aren’t nosey or judgmental.
But you know what? We have so many dreams that DID come true.
A happily imperfect marriage. A house to be proud of. And now, 4 children. Yep. We’ve always wanted 4, and now that i’m knocked up – that magic number is here.
4 kids
The reactions to announcing that we’re having our 4th child is quite mixed. We have had so many friends, co-workers and family pouring out love and support.
But in the midst of the love – we knew we would be bound to hear it ->
- “Was this planned?”
- “Are your crazy?”
- “Oh, good for you!” (I should say, most of these blurt outs are then followed by words trying to make their initial reaction not so impulsive.)
Yep. Not QUITE our timing, but yes – we’ve always wanted and planned for 4 kids.
I’d being lying if I didn’t say the impulsive reactions didn’t hurt the heart a little. It’s the same as someone saying “WHAT?!?! You think that business idea is going to work!?!”. It’s our dream. Not your dream. I’m not peeing on your dream, don’t pee on mine. We’re blessed that it’s actually coming true.
I’m a Mom of 4.
Apparently large families are not the norm anymore unless you are on a reality tv show. The majority of my friends have 1 or 2 kids. A few friends with 3, and sorry if I am overlooking you – but uh – I can only think of 1 friend with 4 kids (and if you count her step, it would 6).
To us, we know the roller coaster ahead.
- Being a working mom, I know that another will throw yet another ball into what I need to juggle.
- There will never be ENOUGH money.
- There rarely will be a quiet house.
- Our health spending account will need to be maxed out yearly.
- We must buy a bigger car.
- Vacations will be less luxurious.
- We will be spending many days of our lives praying for answers and guidance.
- There will be little sleep, lots of tears both theirs and ours, and many dirty diapers.
- None of that matters.
We’re Ready For It
With those challenges comes LOVE and FAMILY. We will have fun stretching our dollars to do what needs to be done. We will embrace the noise and laughter that illuminates the house with sound. Our kids will have beautiful smiles after spending thousands on braces.
God will provide what we need to cross the finish line at the end of this life. And as we approach that time in our life where the finish line is near – we will have a loving family to surround us.
Sure it won’t be perfect. But perfect is overrated and doesn’t make for good blog posts (kidding kind of). Plus with 4 kids – 1 is BOUND to still like us in the end. 😉
Holding on tight. Praying hard. And YES, I am having my 4th child. I’m only slightly crazy. But I was that way before I even had 1 kid.
Here is one of my favorite Erma Bombeck quotes – the family…..
The Family by Erma Bombeck
We were a strangle little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending and trying to figure out the common thread that bonds us all together.
