Proclamation

Last Monday - well, two Mondays ago, now - we had a very productive day.  Ben and I spent about six hours out in the yard weeding, cleaning, pruning, and planting (3 flats of impatiens, all under the Kanzan cherry in the front yard).  We also spent a while working on the big project we've been working on with Dad Turner over the past few weeks.  I didn't think much of it - there was a lot to get done and we were just tackling it like usual.

Then Tuesday morning, I began doing the laundry which had been put off by a day because of all our outdoor work.  I was carrying laundry baskets downstairs when I felt something I hadn't felt for a while and had sort of forgotten about: a sort of tugging in my stomach muscles that was just on the edge of uncomfortable, like when you've worked the muscles in your legs too much and they keep threatening to cramp.  I was standing downstairs sorting clothes and thinking about the feeling and started to do a little simple math.

That's when I got suspicious.  I came upstairs and said to Ben, "I think it's time to buy a test now."

"What?" he said.

"Well, we can wait a few weeks like last time," I said.  "But I think we're expecting again."

By that evening, I was practically sure of it.  We went over to Leah's family's house for dinner and I was helping make hamburgers when the uncomfortable feeling got strong enough that I finally sat down and then put my feet up for good measure.  Instant relief.  Yep, I thought.  Something is definitely going on.  I'm not the kind of girl who sits around with her feet up very often, especially when there's a lot going on in the kitchen.  Leah's mother-in-law looked at me and said, "How long ago did you miscarry?"

"Late February," I said.

"Hm," she said.

"I know.  I'm suspicious too," I said.  Last time around we were a lot more secretive for a lot longer.  This time I pretty much gave up.  Everyone we know already knows that we were expecting a baby before and it was only a matter of time before we were again.

It took us until Thursday to get around buying a test.  And I woke Ben out of a sound sleep Friday morning to inform him that it was very definitely positive.  At which point, we promptly began spilling the beans to our family just as fast as we possibly could.  

If you would've asked me a year ago if I'd be the kind of person who would tell the whole world she was expecting as soon as she knew about it or if I would be the kind of person who would just keep it to herself (well, herself, her husband, and their parents/siblings...) for a few months, I would definitely have picked the latter.  The problem is, we did that last time and we found out something: Joshua's life was something to take joy in and most people barely knew of his existence before he was gone.  We told everyone and then immediately had to turn around and tell everyone of his death.  

This does not mean that I think everyone should know our private business all the time.  But life is very precious, even life that's a baby only the size of a sesame seed.  It is something to treasure and rejoice in for the miracle and the gift that it is, a gift God gave us just as certainly if we possess it for one day or three million.  I treasure every day this baby is continuing to live and grow, every day that brings on a little greater loss of energy and all the other symptoms that are making me lose ambition to get other projects around here done again.  I suppose I would be lying if I said I have perfect unshaken confidence this baby will join our family as a newborn at the end of January: it's sometimes a moment-by-moment thing to keep my mind on being at peace and not being afraid.  There is just such a long way to go and so many things that could happen.  It even makes me feel quite vulnerable to tell everyone about this baby so soon, as if he's a secret I'd like to hold onto for a while just to make sure he's really real.  In a way, boldly telling everyone of his existence is a gesture of faith, at least on my part, because it's flat out claiming, "Yes, we are having a new baby!"  Not "maybe", not "if everything goes well", not "well, we hope..."  Those things are all true, of course, but at the point you announce, "We're expecting again" it's an unqualified statement.  It's a statement of hope.  As much as my doubts want to take over, as much as I want to hold back and do the pessimistic "wait and see", I am joyfully saying, "We're expecting again!"

We named our last baby Joshua because it was a declaration that this child was ours and had a place and was known to God; we also named him Hope because we wanted to remind ourselves that it was something we still had even if we could not keep the child himself.  Joshua's death was not the death of hope.  This baby's life is something entirely new and distinct and different, and we are full of hope - also translated "expectation" - that we will hold this child in our arms and raise him (or her!) to Godly adulthood.

And that is our very wonderful news for this week.