Gender discovered--It's a boy!

I hadn't thought I had any preference, boy or girl, until the moment we found it he was a boy--then I felt a twinge of disappointment. The girls were hoping to even out the numbers a bit, so maybe I was disappointed for them. "There are too many boys!" Mariah insisted that night, when we were all together in the kitchen. "Who should we get rid of?" I asked her, hoping that the question would cause her to reflect that we couldn't spare anyone. She, however, started naming off her brothers one by one, as they took turns looking offended. I told her that Sadie, Mom and she would have to stick together, with all those boys in the house.

The boys are pleased. "Score!" was Macon's text in response to the good news.

This business of being able to find out the gender ahead of time is a beautiful use of modern technology. What an amazing window into what was not before seen--we know the baby has all his tiny parts--a perfectly formed little person, whose job is to gain another seven or eight pounds and perfect some of those less developed and currently unneeded organs like his lungs. We know that he is a boy, which tells us a great deal about him--he will need to be taught to provide, protect, and preside in his home.

I had one very sobering response to my jubilant "It's a boy!" annunciation text (although in this case, I had texted "Es niño!") A friend responded in her own language: "What a great blessing to have a boy! It is better, because the women in this world work harder and suffer more than the men!" This lady has had some cause to feel this way, because the men in her life had not often been what they should have been. It should not be like that--men and women are made to share the burdens of work and of sorrow, as well as the joys. It makes me determined that my sons should be taught to work hard, and be honorable and faithful husbands and fathers. That is what will give them and their families the most happiness--now and later.