Valentine Blessing

I know the first day of March is a little late to be posting about Valentine's Day, but I have a good reason. This year God gave us a special surprise Valentine! Here's a clue:

 

Around late October/early November, a new little McKinstry baby should be here to fill those shoes at the end of the line. We hadn't planned on having another little one quite so soon but we are beyond excited about it! 

Around 3:30 a.m. on Valentines, I woke up to nurse Hadley who was wanting a middle of the night snack. While I was up, I decided to take a pregnancy test since I'd not been feeling the best lately and was a bit suspicious something like this might be the cause. In reality I expected a negative test and wasn't too surprised when I didn't see a line show up in the tests results at first. As my eyes adjusted more to the light, I saw some pink beginning to appear faintly. Wow! 

I went in the bedroom to tell Dave, who was changing Hadley's diaper. "We might have a lot more diapers to change soon," I announced. And, while I can't remember his exact words, I remember how excited he was to find out another Baby McK is on the way.

He somehow went back to sleep pretty quickly after getting Hadley back in bed; I, on the other hand, could not sleep for hours. I thought about all the logistics of having three babies, how I was going to tell my family, tried figuring out what the due date would be, thought about the option of preschool for Caleb a couple days a week, wondered whose room I would put the new baby in and if Hadley would be out of her crib that soon, etc. etc. etc. 

My sister had stayed the previous night with us so the following morning, she was the first one I got to share the news with (aside from Dave and Hadley, of course). We told Caleb too who let us know that the new baby is going to be a girl and that she could sleep in his bed. 

For telling my parents though, I wanted to be a little more creative. Since it was Valentines, I decided to have Caleb make a card and then signed the bottom: "Love, Caleb (Hadley & Baby McKinstry too!)"

He told me what to write on the front and for the inside message.

When my mom came to visit, she got distracted playing with the kids and I kept nudging her to open Caleb's Valentine as my sister and I waited in anticipation for her reaction. Finally, she opened it! After giggling about Caleb's "I love you, Amen" message, she saw the bottom. "You are kidding me!" she exclaimed. Nope, NaNa...here comes baby number 3. Though surprised (as were we) that our next baby was coming so soon, she said the perfect thing, "We'll take 'em whenever we can get 'em."

Bring on the baby bump! So excited! :)