The price we’re willing to pay
Ever since we found out we’re having a girl I can’t help but think “pink”. I see it everywhere now and in the back of my mind I am plotting what pretty little pink things I can make. The car seat is blue - I’ll need to make a pink cover. The swing is blue - same thing.
My dear sister in law Donna visited from Georgia recently and gifted us with a positively darling and perfectly pink sweater set for our sweet baby girl. Then, this morning, while shopping at Target I just couldn’t resist buying a few little onesie type tops. Not all pink but definitely girly and way too cute to resist.
Later on 10 yr. old Mary told me she thinks about the baby every day with eager anticipation. OK, she didn’t word it that way exactly, it was more like “I’m so excited!”, but the meaning was certainly the same. Frankly we’re all just giddy here. But mark my word, if it turned out we we’re having a boy we’d be every bit as excited - just not so sure of a name. . .
You might imagine then how taken aback I was as I checked out of Home Depot this evening (not my shopping this time but 20 yr. Kyle’s. He needs tools for college and well what is your parent’s credit card for anyway?). As I was signing the credit slip the cashier remarked on how healthy my fingernails looked. I smiled and replied “oh yes it’s a pleasant side effect of pregnancy” to which she quickly exclaimed “Oh, that’s too high of a price to pay for nice nails!”. I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say so I just walked away, but it’s been on my mind all night.
As I hold up my hands and look at them I have to agree they do look lovely and yet I can’t imagine ever thinking a baby too high a price to pay. . . for anything. If asked directly I wonder if that cashier might agree with me and yet I can’t help but wonder what it is about our society and the way we view children that makes a woman so quick to spurn the idea of having a baby. I really don’t know but it makes me sad because I feel so blessed to have these children and to be carrying this precious baby that God willing will be born safely into my arms this Advent season. I don’t feel like I am paying a price, I feel like God is paying me. . . in abundance!
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Aug 22, 2006 - 12:08:21I certainly agreee with your perspective on life and babies, Michele. A baby is a blessing in every way possible. (And the healthy hair and nails certainly are a perk.
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Is there something in the air? water? SOCIETY? that influences women with such an anti-baby attitude? I too have heard similar responses here in Germany, and I only have 4 children. Such responses come so quickly and almost automatically…Your cashier and others have been brainwashed to groan when talking about babies…if they only knew of the joy that is added to the family with each new life…I pray for more “joy” for our family every day.
Oh, please tell me that you told her you will have had a total of ninety months of good nails when this baby is born…
I didn’t, I was too stunned but that would have been a good reply. I’ve been shocking people a lot lately. We have gotten astonishment about the number of children since we’ve had four or five but there’s seems to be something magical about the number ten. It seems to cause speechlessness in quite a lot of people.
Wonderful post, Michele.
Those hands of yours are indeed works of art in more ways than one. They are the hands that do God’s work.
Michele, I’ve been pregnant four times and have two beautiful girls. My two in-between were prolonged midterm losses and I’ve never fully recovered from the loss of my children. But people still ask me, when they see me out and about with my two girls, “So, you’re done now, right? You’ve got two children, you’re done!” I never said I was ‘done’, and my Marian (toddler) was a high risk pregnancy and took nearly everything I had in me to bring her to term. I still think about a third child, and for us this is no easy matter. I entrusted Marian to the Blessed Mother’s care throughout my pregnancy, I was on bedrest and everything. When people talk about children and limits, and insist on putting their own needs first …. then we are horrified at the abortion rate and children still needing homes …. people are so cavalier about children, I still don’t understand the attitudes of some. I admire and respect you and your ‘large family’, I think it’s beautiful and wonderful, God bless you and your family always!!!
Oh, so sad. My girls talk all the time about another baby … at 46, no, it would not be “too high a price” to give them another sibling if God wills it ….
Can’t wait to see pictures of your new little girl when she arrives!
Amen!!!
I’ve had a few people tell me they would have been horrified to find themselves pregnant at 45. I look at my precious baby daughter and think how lucky I am and how much they are missing.