So, Here it Goes......................

I've got a pretty good life. Good kids, good marriage, own a home, have a job. It's happy.

But I can't say that I've had one of those charmed lives. You know what I'm talking about. People where everything just falls into line. They plan it or wish it, and it happens. Careers, finances, family, all seem to progress appropriately.

Progress.

I feel like we've practiced the fine art of stagnation in our 10 years of marriage. Some by choice, some by circumstance. We've done a lot of planning, a lot of wishing. And with a ton of hard work we've landed where we are today. Not quite what we had envisioned. But getting there slowly but surely.

If you would have asked anyone I grew up with they would have predicted me to be the consummate stay at home mom. I always laughed and joked about the 10 kids I would have. Never would I have predicted that I'd be the bread-winning career lady.

And I wouldn't ever have predicted that being able to just become a mom would be the single biggest challenge of my life, my marriage, my spirit. 5 years. 5 years it took for us with every intervention, prayer and pleading you can imagine to get our Lilly. Incalculable amounts of money, medication, procedures, yearning and tears.

And don't forget the envy, of every other mom out there. Watching virtually everyone around you get pregnant. Even those that you struggled through infertility with. They became moms to.

Imagine our joy to have it finally realized. And the blessing of parenthood has never been lost on me. Ever.

So, our Miss Haddie came a little easier. Less time. Less money. Less procedures. But exactly our same desire for a growing family.

Imagine our joy of two.

Now? For the first time in my life. I feel charmed. I feel like I wished for something and it happened. For the first time in 10 years of marriage, we are pregnant, on our own. Without planning, without procedures. With perfect timing of Alex finishing school, perfect timing for me not to work as much, perfect timing of finances for a maternity leave we could have never predicted.

It just happened.

Imagine our joy.