The Hills Roll On

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!

Psalm 127:3-4

“Wait a second…umm, okay. Change of plans,” said the ultrasound technician with a twinkle in her eye and a tiny grin. I hardly dared believe that she’d say what I knew she was going to say next. “There’s two!” There on the state of the art ultrasound screen we saw the amazing truth; that there are in fact TWO little 20 week old babies in my womb as I write this. I gasped, laughed, turned to Gavin to drink in the astonished joy on his face, and then I cried for joy. Pure joy filled my whole being as the words “double blessing” coursed through me. Two…two darling wonderful children. “A two-fer!” I laughed aloud. Two for the price of one! Our little family of three is suddenly a family of five. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

The thought of twins had occurred to me early on in my first trimester. I put on, like, 10 pounds in the first 9 weeks. I was horrified by the weight gain, thinking my eating was out of control. Could it really be that bad, I thought? I half jokingly said, the only other rteasonable explanation is twins! At the very least, a strapping young boy. The thought of twins nagged at me, in its highest improbability, but slight possibility. That same day I couldn’t sleep as I tossed and turned thinking, “what if? Just what IF?”. So I hopped online at 1 am and did a little research. Extra weight gain and stronger pregnancy symptoms (which I slightly had..still no puke though!) were signs. But you really wouldn’t know conclusively until the ultrasound. Well whaddya know…1 in 800 here I am. You can’t wipe the smile off my face.

Gavin tells me that he prayed for twins. Wow! He said that if I had to have another Cesearean he asked that it be twins; since I will be limited in how many births I can have after this surgery. Might as well get the most for the surgery! I’m so touched that he prayed that for me. I didn’t think to pray it specifically; I just prayed it would be VBAC so we could have a third pregnancy and onward with no major complications. But now, if it’s to be a surgery, so be it. Our two-fer…two for one.

We savored the secret for weeks to keep it a special surprise for our families in Ottawa. Last weekend we delightfully unveiled the wonderful news and savoured their reactions. Laughter, exclamations of joy, stunned looks and a few knowing smiles. It’s moments in life like this that you have to pause and enjoy. True reasons to celebrate are few and far between in our world today; this is one of them and we are enjoying every minute of it.  Judah and Jethro, you are meant for great things.  We are honored to be your parents and look forward to holding you in our arms until the day comes when you set your wings and fly.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremiah 29:11

I never knew my life would turn out this way.

Growing up, I wasn’t the kind of girl who daydreamed of a high school sweetheart, planned out her wedding in painful detail, chose her babies names in advance. Nope, I had other priorities and my self at the very centre. So it never ceases to amaze me when I pause periodically to look at my life. Yup, I met my husband in highschool (LAST thing I ever saw coming! He was just supposed to be my OAC art class ‘enjoyable view’. I enjoyed the view then, and now I get to be up close and personal;) We had our grand schemes and plans of how to get rich quick (illicitly of course), how we’d “take care of it” if we got pregnant before we were “ready”, how maybe we’d get married (but who cares anyway, cuz it’s just a stupid peice of paper). Something must’ve changed on a core level, cuz that’s not where we are today. No, far from it. People around us try to write it off as “they just grew up”. You don’t grow up out of addiction. Our self-centered gene didn’t suddenly get overthrown by a rare DNA combo of philantrophy. Something bigger happened, and it rocked us to the core.

I remember the countless nights walking in the AY feild near my parents home. I’d crane my neck to peer into the vastness of space. The stars mocked me somehow; speaking a language I couldn’t understand. The wind caressed my face, but I turned away, heartbroken somehow. Longing for…something…gone unfulfilled yet again. I couldn’t get high enough.

Would it shock some who think they know me so well if they knew where I’d be today had not my world been rocked? Would they dismiss it as exxageration? Are they so sure of themselves that they think, “that sort of thing doesn’t happen to nice people like us?”. It already did. It already did.

Here I am, ten years later, and my life is the last thing I ever thought it would be. I am married, second child on the way, just completed a BA at ‘Bible College’, am living in the USA of all places, and am most certainly not living the American Dream. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t enjoy money…it’s just not the source of my security nor my identity in life. That’s why I can be here right now, literally giving myself over to something greater than me, and doing it with joy. Somedays I wonder if I’m missing out on something, if we could be rolling in mad money right now, Gavin putting the finishing touches on the home he built with his own hands, our greyhounds rolling around on our 100 acres of land. I still have dreams that maybe someday we will have some of those simple things. But even if we don’t I know in my core that I never compromised. I know more than I did 10 years ago, with a certainty that makes some people uncomfortable, that the Lord is My Shepherd; I lack no good thing.