Molly Piper

I thought some of you would like to see the video of Abraham and me telling 5-year-old Orison about his twin sisters. Actually, I know some of you want to see this, because you specifically asked me to film it!

A little background…Orison desperately wanted a sister this time around. He’s been praying for another one for two and a half years! So this was a sweet moment all around.

Enjoy!

Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL for blessing my life in the last two days!!! I’m surprised my blog didn’t just go up in smoke or something–it has never seen so much action! I haven’t even been able to read all your comments fully (because I’m still on the phone all the time). I have no idea how some bloggers have traffic like this every day. I mean, it’s amazing, but I feel like I can’t catch up!

So this is kind of a brain-dump, because that’s literally all I can do now:

• We had NO idea that there could be 2 babies. I’d been to the doctor 3 times and the doppler always seemed to indicate one heartbeat, as did my fundal height measurement (the size of my womb).
• The babies are in two very distinct sacs (which wasn’t terribly obvious from the picture I posted). This probably means they’re fraternal sisters (66% chance), but there’s still a possibility of one egg splitting very early (which would mean identical). We have absolutely no preference on that issue.
• Just when you think you’re getting the hang of something (pregnancy in this case), God decides I need to learn something else new. It’s kind of overwhelming to be honest.
• My 40 week due date was supposed to be August 16. After looking at the babies (saying the plural still freaks me out), my doctor bumped my due date back 10 days. The babies seemed a little small for 18 weeks.
• My doctor said to prepare for early August. I pray they stay in there that long. PLEASE pray for them to remain healthy.
• I’m still fielding phone calls like crazy. The whole day Wednesday was so exciting, but by the end I felt like I had just had my wedding reception or something equally crazy. I was relationally exhausted (and I’m a true extrovert). If I skip your call, it’s probably because I’m trying to sleep, which leads me to the next thing….
• PLEASE pray for me to sleep at night. I feel completely exhausted when I go to bed, but then my brain starts going a million miles an hour and I can’t sleep. I think I slept 4 hours last night–not good for a woman in my condition.
• Some of you asked about Orison–he’s excited! Though mommy doesn’t look super pregnant yet, so it’s not as in-his-face as it will be (literally!).
• Morrow has NO idea, which is wonderful. He’s just as happy-go-lucky as ever and cracking us up at every turn. He’s a nice reminder to invest in the now.

I’m hoping to have some time to write a few reflections this weekend on how things are going below the surface. I hope to be able to bring you along, if you want to come.

Many of you already know I’m pregnant.

And for those of you who have come along with me on my journey over the last couple years know that being pregnant carries a bit more extra baggage than it used to for me, since we lost our second child at full term.

Her name was Felicity.

After Felicity, we had Morrow. He’s an amazing baby—Abraham likes to call him perfect—and, though he filled part of the void left by Felicity, he obviously wasn’t a girl. And that was something I desperately wanted.

A girl.

I knew I couldn’t have Felicity back, but something about having a daughter felt like it would sort of round out my grieving. Not finalize it, but complete it in a way, if that makes any sense.

Well, we went in for our first ultrasound yesterday morning. Both Abraham and I were very nervous. I wanted a girl so bad that I didn’t know how I’d react if it was a boy. And then that terrible feeling was compounded by the guilt I felt for feeling that in the first place.

I ought to be happy with any baby! I know that. I know I shouldn’t expect a replica of my lost daughter.

But there’s a part of me that, no matter what, longs to have a girl in my house with me. I want to teach her to knit.

I laid down on the ultrasound table. The technician and the doctor were both in the room. The technician placed the camera doohickey on my belly and immediately said, “Uh-Oh.”

You wanna know what not to say during an ultrasound?

Uh-oh. Don’t freakin’ say uh-oh.

Then the doctor said it, too…

Uh-oh.

Now, in reality these two uh-ohs came about two seconds apart and then were immediately explained. But my heart stopped—along with the world.

The immediate explanation came from the doctor: “We’re looking at two babies.”

…What?!…

Abraham jumped up, yelled “Yeah!” and punched the air. I started laughing.

But we still didn’t know whether they were boys or girls. Fortunately, after about 30 seconds, our doctor said, “Twin A is a girl.”

I about melted.

A few minutes later they confirmed that, yes, Twin B is a girl, too.

I’ve never felt happier.

We’re in shock. We’re having twins. They’re girls.

*                 *                *

From this view, we’re looking down on Twin A’s face from a semi-top view, and we’re looking straight down on Twin B, so you can’t see much except that it’s indeed a whole separate baby!

***Many thanks to my amazingly supportive husband for ghostwriting this post for me. I was seriously on the phone all day yesterday and had no coherent brain space left. (Oh, and I wrote this disclaimer, but Abraham agrees that he’s amazingly supportive.)***

Recently, Orison has been asking to watch “that movie where the man jumps into the water and swims around.”

WHAT?!?!?

I tried to get the name out of him, but he couldn’t remember. I started going through his movie-watching history (a very short list), and remembered that one time he saw a portion of the A&E Pride & Prejudice.

“Do you mean ‘Pride & Prejudice?’”

“Yeah! The man jumps into the water and swims around!”

Anyone know what part he’s talking about? That’s right, Mr. Darcy is trying to cool his jets over Miss Elizabeth Bennett and dives into the pond at Pemberley, only to meet with her face-to-face as he’s walking back up to the house, soaked to the bone.

Ahhh, “Private Predges”–one of my favorite movies (and books).

So last week, when his Aunt Talitha was babysitting for the afternoon, he suggested they watch Private Predges. (She doesn’t take too much convincing to watch a Jane Austen flick.)

Later that night, this is what he told me:

“Private Predges” was way before cars.

Why did they ride horses all the time? And why didn’t they say giddyup? They just said “Drive on.”

Then, yesterday, he convinced our regular babysitter that they should watch some of it! Here’s what she told me in an email:

He asked for Pride and Prejudice. I laughed. I assumed it would be okay for him to watch, since he relayed the whole story to me. I said if he was a good boy, we could watch a little bit but not the whole thing. He was okay with that.

With an affinity for Jane Austen at 5, I think he’s going to make some lady very happy someday!

So, one of my minor goals for raising sons is being achieved! Perhaps someday he’ll be a man who happily sits through multiple screenings of Jane Austen movies throughout his marriage! He’s supposed to live with his wife in an understanding way, right?

Or maybe he’ll be Darcy-like: strong, level-headed, generous, kind…a mother can dream.

Remember me, months ago, already stressing a bit about how/where we were going to educate Orison for Kindergarten?

Well friends, we have an answer: Seven Hills Classical Academy.

I was getting really nervous in the past couple weeks while waiting for the schools I applied to to do their lotteries. I don’t think I’ve ever trusted the US Postal Service less–I found myself wanting to call the charter schools multiple times a day and frantically ask, “Did you get our application?!?!? Are you SURE?!?!?”

I was so nervous that I started filling out private school applications like crazy, and when I wasn’t doing that, I was mentally planning how I would be able to homeschool with a 2-year-old and a newborn in tow (which was something I really didn’t want to do).

But we got our answer on Sunday evening when I finally checked the mail from Saturday! HA!

I saw the envelope in the stack of junk mail as I was coming up the stairs, and instantly couldn’t breathe. I got to the dining room table and was praying out loud, “Please God, please God, please God…”. When I got the envelope open I was so nervous I couldn’t even read the letter–all I could do was scan it for the important words.

Due to overwhelming interest in our school… (oh no)

lottery was held… (yeah, yeah… get on with it)

(not breathing at this point, folks)

pleased to inform you…

PLEASED TO INFORM YOU?!?!? PLEASED TO INFORM YOU?!?!? Then I was finally able to read the rest of the letter!

To make this even sweeter…

• Orison’s best friend also got in! (They’ve been each other’s favorite since about 1 year old.)
• Orison’s best friend lives a block away!
• Orison’s best friend’s mommy is one of my best friends!
• Orison’s best friend’s mommy & I already have our car pool!
• Another one of Orison’s friends also got in for Kindergarten, so he’ll know at least 2 other kids in his grade!

I’m absolutely THRILLED if you couldn’t tell!