Ignorant Historian

And to think that that baby is about to have a baby!

Story time! Let me take you back to the Friday before Memorial Day.

I was having a usual day at work, though I was a bit antsy for the weekend. I had been looking forward to the extra day off work to catch up on some reading.

My sister-in-law and I were texting about weekend plans. Here’s the part of the conversation that stood out to me:

SIL: Going to see our fams

Me: Awww, wish I was there.

SIL: Not to make u feel worse but yah, i think u will wish it more tomorrow when we r in [the town our parents live in]

SIL: Lotsa stuff going on ha

Me: Wait, what? You can’t just say stuff like that…

Does that sound suspicious to you?

It did to me. All of a sudden, comments that she had been making for weeks came back to me, comments about being sick and how the holidays would be changing from now on. I obsessively looked through all our texts in the past month to see if it all added up.

And it did.

She must be pregnant.

I was dying inside. I couldn’t think of any other explanation for the cryptic comments. I talked it over with a couple of friends, and they confirmed.

But I knew I couldn’t ask Amanda out right. It was only right they told their parents, first. And I knew that I’d receive confirmation on Saturday, so it was a waiting game for me.

Needless to say, I was worthless for any productive work. Spent the evening with a friend who thankfully distracted me. Then spent a restless night before spending all day Saturday on my back, having my own SVU marathon (thanks to Hulu). I couldn’t even begin to concentrate on a book.

Finally, at 10 PM, I got the call from the proud papa-to-be. On December 26th, they’re expecting baby bean!

Y’all know how much I love children. I get excited every time one of my friends gets pregnant or adopts. So of course I’m excited for my SIL as a friend, but it’s so much more as this baby is my niece/nephew. (I’m rooting for a niece, but hey, a nephew’s cool, too.)

And now the real waiting begins. This Christmas brings a special new present to our family. =)

Their dog decided to "help" by offering me a ball to throw.

Yesterday was one of my favorite days in recent memory.

There was nothing particularly special about the day, nothing that someone else would look at and say, “Wow, she has a blessed life.”

But I absolutely do.

The best part of the day was the afternoon. I was invited over to a friend’s house for lunch with her family. We had lunch, sure, but it was much more. It was simply being together, living their typical Sunday afternoon. It was everything that I miss being single.

I’m convinced that that’s how we’re created to live. It’s only in our individualistic modern times where most people live alone or in small family units.

Sans dog...a success!

I don’t like it. As an introvert, I enjoy my alone time, sure. But as a person designed to live in community, I hate coming home to an empty house day after day.

It’s such a blessing to get to be a part of someone else’s family life.

I know I’ve said it before, but if you have a family, reach out to someone single and invite them into your life. Perfect hospitality not necessary, or really desired. It’s good to see family life more like it really is, not the façade we like to put up for “company.” While it’s nice to be treated like a guest sometimes, more often I prefer just to be one of the family.

I hope you had a good weekend as well!

4 Generations

And just a small hint as to what I’ll be doing all next week. Details to come…tomorrow!

Gotta love the look of sheer joy on my face!