Our Family of 5!

Five...The perfect number for us!
As many of you know, Jen over at Denton Sanitorium is having another linky party!
This assignment involves writing about your family and how it came to be. Fun, huh?

I am writing this in a bit of a hurry...and this was the quickest, most recent family photo I could find.
I would love to go into much more detail and maybe at some point soon I will....but for now I'll share this short story!
Let me start by saying...I am an only child.
So... I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would have more than one....not because I think having one is not enough, but because I always wanted to be a part of a larger family and this time it was my choice. If I had had several brothers and sisters I may have been satisfied with one or two...but because my childhood was calm and quiet and such, I thought I needed to produce the chaos that I had  always enjoyed when hanging out at the homes of my freinds with large families.

As a young girl, I had names picked out for girls and boys. I had the JC Penny catalog pages marked with crib bedding and strollers that I thought I'd have. I played house with my friends and always had a baby doll. When I was old enough to babysit...I remember saying "Oh, I'm not going to let my children act like that...or "My little girl will wear a hair bow everywhere just like her." etc...
What I am saying here is that there was never a question of whether or not I would have children. It was a part of me forever.

I was married at an early age to my High School sweetheart. We waited 5 years before having children. We were the ultimate planners...and our plans worked perfectly. As soon as Emily was born...we knew we would have another. 3 years later, Jonathan was born. Ah ha...a girl and a boy..one of each. A good place for many parents to stop...was not good enough for us. I knew that I had to give them more than one sibling....1 was not enough!
But the third one came as a surprise....we were thinking of starting to plan...but my Dad was dying of cancer at the time and that was a difficult time, as you can imagine! I wondered why I was so tired all the time. I thought I was just really sad and worried....well...how about that..new life came when I really needed it. The best part was that I didn't find out I was pregnant until I was 13 weeks along. I already felt better and the pregnancy went by really quickly...and my Dad was able to meet all of my children!

The entire time I was pregnant with Zac, I declared he was the last. I said things like "This is the last time I'll wear these awful maternity clothes...and this is the last time I have to drink this awful glucola."
The moment he was born...I took all the words back to say "Oh! He can't be the last one!"

By the time he was 2....I was really wavering back and forth...but all along feeling that our family was complete. Once Emily said, "Mommy, we need to have another sister!" I said, "You know it could be another brother." To which she said "Oh! Let's don't do it then!"
Funny stuff!

Some of you know that I am a Mother~Baby nurse. I work every weekend on night shift.
I get my baby fix often...over and over again.
I also see and know things about pregnancy and child-birth that scare me and remind me that life is precious and miraculous for sure.

I am enjoying the ages and stages of my children and realize that 5 is our number.
I am certainly young enough to have another...and I'm sure my family would just love to have a baby around....but I am loving things as they are and feel good here in this place.
That is a huge blessing, I know!
And my house is plenty chaotic as it is!  In a fun way, of course!

Hop on over to Jen' blog to read some wonderful family stories...
she always has a great turn-out at her parties. 
I'm looking forward to reading your family story too.