All HER Little Fingers and All HER Little Toes...

The 20 week ultrasound is always exciting!! We always make sure we count fingers and toes. We always want to see everything just where it is supposed to be. In our family, we always want to see if there may be a cleft lip or palate. There are just a few things we want to see before we even dare to find out if the baby is a he or a she.

The great news is SHE is BEAUTIFULLY PERFECT!! Our ultrasound was almost 2 hours. The ultrasonographer took great care to look several times over the nose and lip area and quite a few passes for toes and fingers, along with other regions to confirm boyness or girlness. We also had a student who took some time to learn some angles and find anatomy.

For all that looking, neither could find any "external" clues as to boyness, so naturally we have deduced we are expecting a GIRL!! And by the thoroughness of the ultrasound, I believe we have no reason to doubt our conclusions.

We couldn't be more excited to welcome HER into our family!! SHE will be number four and will join her 2 brothers and 1 sister. With the total of six in our family, we will be even at 3 of each!!

Our children all have opinions about the new arrival. Avery has told anyone within the sound of her voice that she was right about knowing the baby was a "girl baby". She has also taken the liberty of picking names for her. She would love her name to be either Natalie or Jessica. Cameron and I have not considered those names before, but we have decided to put them on the list. Kendal is less excited to have another girl in the house. He has learned early, especially from Avery, that girls, no matter what age, are very complex. He is also learning quickly to be patient and kind to ANY girl to avoid conflict. He is also learning that avoiding conflict is sometimes completely unavoidable where girls are concerned. Drew just seems so small. We can still hold him and rock him and cuddle him. It is just hard to remember that they start out so much smaller than Drew is now at 18 months. I am hoping he will accept and love as he always does.

In all of this, we can't help but feel completely blessed. Family is hard work, and sometimes really tough. There are always challenges no matter what season we are in. There are also many joys, many giggles, many truly amazing moments that give us a glimpse of why we are meant to be families. What an awesome responsibility to be part of creating one.

We are totally amazed that our little family has a soon-to-be total of 40 little fingers and 40 little toes. What a miracle!!