Inspiration

2 years ago I was nearing the end of my pregnancy with Quinn. Brian and I went on a little date to Chilli's. During the evening we talked about our next child, because we definitely wanted more than two children. It was agreed that we'd definitely wait until Brian was done with school (Fall 2013) because we didn't have room to put a third child in our already cramped bedroom! We also agreed it would be better to have a bigger vehicle than to have carseats lining the backseat.

So it makes me smile to look at the pictures of my 3 children while I type this post.

I did not expect to be a momma of three so soon. Brian still has two more semesters after this one before he graduates. Our little sedan has a cute little row of carseats in the back seat. And it is a mess.

It all started one summer morning. Quinn was about 7 months. I went to the Temple with the youth to do baptisms. It was a normal enough day. But as I was handing towels to the wet youth I got a strong impression that we shouldn't wait to have another child. Weird. I didn't tell Brian about it. Then, in September, my older sister went through the Temple for the first time. As I was sitting in the session, I got a strong impression that we should not wait to have another child. I told Brian about it. He didn't like that idea, he said "Well I don't feel that way." and we discussed how there's no room in our bedroom to add another child and other things. Let's just say the conversation didn't end very happily.

Then a few days later, Brian picked me up from the park 'n' ride. He said, "I've been thinking about what you said and we could make the sleeping arrangement work if we got rid of our loveseat and got a futon." I was shocked. Usually conversations like the one we had a few days before ended and were never mentioned again. Brian doesn't usually bring up topics like that without me saying something first. We decided to look at futons. We found one at a hole in the wall furniture store and put it on layaway.

We still hadn't agreed on WHEN we would start trying. This all happened in September, Quinn was about 8 months old. I had just gotten my cycle back. After Hayden was born it took several months for my cycle to become normal. It took just under a year for me to get pregnant. I was charting my cycles and they looked anovulatory thus far. I think our unspoken agreement was that we'd start trying in November, when Quinn was 1. The end of September I told Brian that we probably didn't have to use protection anymore, since I wasn't ovulating yet.

So we didn't. And I did (ovulate). I was still charting and as soon as I saw that spike in my basal body temperature the day after Brian and I...you know...I KNEW I was pregnant. I warned my mom. "I think I'm pregnant." She smiled and said "That's fine."  My mom is a saint. Willing to watch my little monsters for free. And perfectly fine with adding a third one to the chaos. My mom likes to escape to the grocery store several times a week. I asked her if she would buy me a pregnancy test. She did.

Exactly 14 days from the day I figured I conceived, I took a test. It was a Sunday morning I peed on the stick and hopped into the shower. All the while convincing myself that I wasn't pregnant. Even though I felt pregnant, even though my basal temperature had stayed high the entire two weeks and got a little higher the last few days. That was probably the fastest shower I have ever taken. I barely dried off before I looked at the test. Those two little pink lines brought tears to my eyes. I didn't know why Heavenly Father wanted us to expand our family so soon, but I was so excited for our little blessing!

Now, a year from the time I took the pregnancy test, I sit here typing this post. Looking at some pictures of the three children sitting on a shelf nearby. Kahlan is such a perfect little addition to our family. She seems to be a perfect balance between Hayden and Quinn. She's not as perfectly laid back as Hayden, but definitely not as high strung as Quinn. They both love her, we never had any issues with jealousy from either one.

 I can't explain why or what, but I feel like the Lord has a lot in store for little Kahlan, and that's why she needed to come sooner. I'm excited to watch her grow and progress and see what kind of things the Lord has planned for her.