Tomorrow is a big day for Annalise, as well as for Clay and me. It's the day when he and I will present her before our church and promise to train her up according to God's commandments. In honor of her special day, I am posting the beginning of what will become her birth story. I promise to finish the entire story before her first birthday! It's just a bit tough to find time to write with five kiddos... :)
Annalise
Elizabeth’s
Birth Story (Part One!)
By Her Mommy
In March 2014, I became overwhelmed
with the urge to have another baby. I didn’t just experience a little tug at my
heart but a true I-can’t-think-of-anything-else yearning. While I was at work
on March 10th, I texted Clay and told him that I was so overwhelmed
with the desire to have another baby that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I
clarified that I didn’t know if it was my hormones, the Holy Spirit, or the
Holy Spirit using my hormones to tell me that we should consider having a fifth
child. He suggested that we pray about it and with his suggestion came complete
peace for me about this idea that we had never seriously considered before.
Later when we had a moment free from
the general chaos of our home, we thanked God for blessing us with four
healthy, happy children and prayed for His direction regarding any additions to
our family. We knew that we had a houseful of great kids and that we didn’t
NEED anymore. However, Clay and I truly wanted to be in God’s will, and if His
future for us included a fifth baby, then we were willing to welcome another
little one into our madness.
During the middle of May, I began
noticing a few pregnancy signs. Because I have been pregnant so many times, I
think I am super sensitive to my body and everything it craves or feels. In the
mornings, I would experience a little nausea. I caught myself eating fruit,
which I don’t enjoy doing unless I have a bun in the oven. I became excited at
the thought of sandwiches, which have always been my number one craving in all
my pregnancies. However, I kept these symptoms to myself. It was so early, and
I didn’t want to get my hope up.
When school was out, Clay and I packed
up our herd and headed to Myrtle Beach
with both sets of our parents. My pregnancy signs continued, but I still didn’t
mention them to Clay. On one of our last nights at the beach, our parents sent
us off on a date while they kept our kids. We ate dinner outside at a BBQ
restaurant where I tried to figure out how to bring up the possibility of being
pregnant. It was as if the words were stuck in my throat with super glue. After
we ate dinner, we went in search of an ice cream parlor. It took us and our GPS several attempts before we could locate one. As
Clay pulled into a parking spot, I promptly burst into tears and told him my
suspicion. He just hugged me and said, “If you are, it’s not like this is our
first time. We know how to do this.” He handled the possibility of another baby
much more calmly than I did.
At the end of May, we received God’s
clear answer that we would be blessed with another addition. While we weren’t
shocked that we were pregnant (yes, we have figured out how this process
works), Clay and I were still pretty stunned, stunned enough that we kept our
secret from our family for another six weeks.
On the 4th of July, our
families got together at my mom’s house for burgers, hotdogs, and dessert.
Keaton made a very patriotic red, white, and blue cake. As our family sang
“Happy Birthday” to America,
I pulled a sign from my purse and stuck it in the middle of the cake. It read,
“Welcome to Our 5th Little Firecracker, Popping Out February 2015!”
To say we shocked our family with this news would be an understatement. However
by the end of the evening, everyone was excited and claimed that they knew we
weren’t finished having kids.
We still waited until the end of the month
to go public with our news. Clay and I wanted to let our bosses know that we
would need some time off in February before going public with our addition on
social media. On July 28th, we posted,
“In March, Clay and I started praying for
God’s discernment regarding having anymore children. We received His answer in
May and will welcome our fifth blessing in February!
‘As
for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply
in it.’ Genesis 9:7
Yes,
Lord!”
