Finally... We Have Our Girl.

I remember when I was pregnant with our third son. I was asked more frequently than I realized people had the guts to ask, "How many children are you going to have?" or "Trying for that girl, hey?" My husband and I had a pact to casually inform inquisitors that our magic number was eight. We never had a good retort for the girl comments though.

I thought I was done dealing with stranger opinions and intrusions. You see, we were DONE... DONE... having kids. We thought three boys was perfect for us. We knew what we were doing and we were on our way to the blissful post-children years, with plenty of healthy, young years of our own left.

Then a strange thing happened. One lovely spring morning last year, I took a home pregnancy test. Really, just to ease my mind about being slightly late. There was no stunned pause, or mouth agape when I saw the result, just a loud, confused, "What the hell?" And I really don't ever swear, not even mildly like that, so that was a very peculiar moment indeed.

Yes, peculiar. I am revisited even now by the confusion. Pregnant? What? So now what was I supposed to say when the comments and questions started rolling in? "Trying for that girl?" I wanted to shout, "Come on lady! I'm 7 months pregnant and I'm still trying to cope with the shock!!! I wasn't trying for anything!"

And now our beautiful baby girl is here. And the assumptions and inquisitions still abound. It seems everyone really needs to believe that we were just waiting and trying for our girl and only now we can be satisfied and fulfilled.

I believe we would be satisfied and fulfilled with or without our amazing little girl, but I really don't care what people think about it anymore. I am just smitten with my wonderful little, kind of big, family. Our girl is finally here.