Pat is the youngest of seven... his next sibling, Nora, is nine years older... with the other 5 even older than that... so when Pat and I met, became engaged and married we were the young, successful couple... we were in our mid to late 20's... his siblings were all Mid 30-40 something... my soon to be nieces and nephews were all elementary to middle school ages- all except Tara- who is Nora's late 30's blessing... Nora was pregnant with Tara when I met Pat... Nora has 3 older children as well... It is Nora's oldest whose wife just gave birth to their second son...
In the past 15 years that Pat and I have been married, I have enjoyed watching all of my nieces and nephews grow up... I also now have 1 Great Niece and 3 Great Nephews... Two were born out of wedlock, and Nora's two grandchildren were born after what appeared to be a fairy tale romance and wedding... Nora has often commented that I reminded her so much of her daughter in law as we are/were both elementary teachers, love kids, similar size, build and hair color, etc... Nora's son has always reminded me of Pat... athletic in high school, smart, handsome, professional, etc...
When their first son was born three years ago, Nora proudly sent around photos of the new baby and of the entire family surrounding the baby and her new grandson...as thrilled as I was for Nora and her family... I was emotionally heartbroken... I sobbed to Pat that we should have been the ones in the photo... the parents with the newborn baby surrounded by family... that is the way our lives were supposed to have worked out...
This was the moment when I knew that the answer had changed to the question Pat asked me so long ago... in 1998... that led us down the path to adopt our 5 blessings... "What is more important... for you to be pregnant or for you to be a Mommy?" Of course, I immediately stated... "To be a Mommy..." Immediately we began to discuss adoption plans...
The photo of my Great Nephew and his family immediately caused me to hear my biological ticking at the age of 37... immediately I realized that my desire to be pregnant was alive and well and if I was going to become pregnant, I only had a small window of opportunity... time was no longer at my side... never would I have dreamed that I would be blessed with 3 children by birth at that moment...
Today, Pat shared with me that our newest Great Nephew is here... once again, I cried... they chose for the middle name of this baby to be the same as his Aunt, who died soon after birth as she was born too young to survive...
Nora, once again, sent photos... this time was one with her son and two Grandsons... commenting that the photo reminded her of when Pat was younger... Nora's older grandson, does resemble my husband when he was a child... Before this miracle pregnancy, this comment would have stung... perhaps causing more tears as I would have wondered if life had worked out as we had initially planned, would our genetic child have looked like Pat??? Instead, I cried tears of joy, knowing that thanks to God, we will know the answer to that question when this baby is born... perhaps in less than 10 weeks, if this baby breaks her water when Sarah did...
Thank you God, for making all of my dreams come true...
in Your time... not mine...
and so worth the wait!!!
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