It was July of 2009 when God started to speak to us about children. We had just barely crossed the threshold of 6 months of marriage, and God was already transitioning us to the next stage. We would learn in the subsequent years that God is not someone who will let you grow stagnant, unless you ignore Him.
I remember clearly on one of my drives to the Data Center in Homestead, where I was working at the time, God speaking quietly the name David. It was more of a concept than an actual name. Looking up David in the baby name dictionary, the definition was "Blessed".
A few days later God said very clearly, "Your children will be blessed and will be a blessing." Wow no pressure, thanks God. Throughout the pregnancy which took place throughout 2010 with the twins arriving on October 27, 2010, almost a year and a half after God spoke those words, we were told that God had special plans for them, etc. Watching people's reactions to them as we walk through the mall, we see the promise coming to life.
I've waited over a month to post this blog, but first some lead in to the point of this post. After all, everything in life is a God story, and I cannot cut him out of this story, especially not on "Happy Birthday Jesus day!" as we've been telling the girls all day.
Starting not long after the girls were born, we started getting the question, "are you going to have more?" It's funny it started before the girls were even born. However as we started to think about it we had told God, (which is funny to tell God anything), that we needed a few things to be able to have more children.
Items on that list were, a new higher paying job for me, so that Jaime could either quit completely or cut back her hours even more to be a stay at home mom, our dream, as much as possible. Also, we needed a bigger family car to haul the girls, and any additional children. Finally we needed a house, at least a bigger living place to house the family.
May was a huge month, as we traded in the Malibu for a minivan, and Bettis made me an offer for $28,000 more than I was making already. I remember God saying clearly, there I've taken care of your roadblocks, the house will come, now you have no excuses.
Well the clearance took until the end of October to come in, a few days shy of the girls first birthday party. One of Jaime's obstacles, that we wait till the girls are a year old.
Right around the same time, the Vue's transmission etc died and we were facing new car payments, and wondering if we were going to be able to have another baby, and buy a house the next year. Though one Sunday walking in to Walmart after stressing about this, God spoke again, "Relax, I have everything under control, nothing changes, trust me."
Two weeks into the new job, I met Jaime after work, as she made me close my eyes and handed me in her words, "the biggest surprise she could give me." I told her she was making me nervous, as I had no idea what she could possibly be giving me, but I opened my eyes, and in my hands sat a test, a pregnancy test, that was positive. We were pregnant already when God told me to relax.
We told our families on Thanksgiving Day, and waited until Christmas Day to tell the world. For those of you doing the math, that puts the due day in July. July 30th to be exact (well as exact as one can be at predicting those things). So this year we have to wait till July for Christmas, for God's next gift. He's given us so many that it's hard to fathom, but as long as He takes care of the details, everything will be ok.
Merry Christmas!