Surprise pregnancy. Yup. That's what's up around here lately.
It's a whole different game when you're not expecting it. This time, I've been much more impatient with first trimester fatigue and nausea and food aversions and mood-swings (which made them worse). We weren't positive that this was what we wanted. And we're still not positive that we can parent three children under age 4.
But, I found extreme comfort in Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk Children.
And I tore through the final pages of A Joyful Mother of Children, by Linda Eyre (which I happened to be reading at the time). She says of motherhood:
"I had been going along these past seven years being a faithful, loving mother: having children, learning the hows and whens and wheres, but not really realizing the whys! I projected myself ahead in time and tried to look at life and the childbearing years from an eternal perspective. I was startled to realize that in all eternity I would have only about twenty years in which to bear physical children on a physical earth and reap the eternal joys therein: the joy of learning to manage time and feelings and people, and the joy of molding lives and developing relationships that would help me to learn and grow forever. Only twenty years! Right now it seems like such a long time to change diapers and stand in foyers with fussy, noisy children, to prepare meals and put on bandages. Yet, . . . soon there will be only a memory of how I did, to what extent I was anxiously engaged in grasping all the joy and happiness that was there for me to find in that short time. Then it will be over---forever! I began to concentrate less on the difficulties of pregnancy and childbearing . . . I began to see it all from a new perspective: My eyes were opened, and like a warm, wooly parachute settling over me, the whys began to make themselves manifest. Having another child is a great blessing to be looked forward to with enthusiasm and excitement" (A Joyful Mother of Children; pg. 18).
To be honest, I'm still trying to focus on the whys, but we're definitely excited to meet this little person in June.
