Dorriety Days: Long Overdue

I'd like first to say my hat is off to those of you who manage to keep up with a blog on even a semi-regular basis. I fail. Clearly.

Nevertheless, I am here, feebly attempting to quickly gloss over the highlights of the past four months, with the intention of coming back to elaborate on some of these things in a later post.

The most life-altering news that we have that we've yet to share with our world-wide-web friends is that we are expecting our second child in December, and it's a boy! Assuming that we make it full term and deliver on or within a few days of my due date (December 14), he will be 18 months younger than Betsy, possibly to the day. Were we "trying"? Yes and no. Are we excited? Most definitely. In my opinion, the moment that best expresses my husband's sweet joy occurred only moments after we found out that we are having a boy. We had already had the ultrasound and were alone in the room waiting to see the doctor, and Jason begins addressing a conversation to my belly consisting of his plans for playing with Transformers and driving John Deere tractors. It was endearing.

I won't lie. There are moments, periods, days that I am completely overwhelmed with anxiety and uncertainty (and also guilt) about how we will handle two children under the age of two. But we also know and trust that first and foremost, the Lord has an incredible plan for this little man that is growing and forming inside me, and we are simply stewards of His gift. We also have wonderful, supportive, loving people surrounding us and helping us every step of the way. I'm not really sure of the context in which Hillary Clinton said that "it takes a community to raise a child" so I'm not sure that I could say I have found her particular statement to be true... but it has been invaluable to us to have the community of our family and friends to help us with Betsy so far, and knowing that we have their continued love and support as we welcome our second child into this world makes the future seem much more do-able.

There's no way I could give all of the highlights of our summer in one post, but I would like to share just a few pictures. Then I'll come back and fill in the gaps at a later date.

First birthday party at Stonebrooke Swimming Pool...