Two Precious Girls

So yesterday was a big day. A big, fill-me-up-inside kind of day.

I took Kristy to the OB for a sonogram of the baby. This being our fourth, we had decided to find out the gender of the baby. We'd teased for several weeks: did we want a second girl, or did we want a third boy? Trey wanted a brother, Gracie a sister, until Trey wanted a sister, in which case Gracie wanted a brother.

I thought either one would be good, but a second daughter would be nice. I'm pretty sure I'm a better, more socially and emotionally well-rounded, more-like-Jesus person because I'm the father of a girl.

Kristy said she wanted a girl, but seemed resigned to having another boy. She'd convinced herself there was a guy inside her.

So we're in the office, then we're in the sono room, and then the tech starts waving the magic wand over the magic sticky gel stuff, and...poof!



"It's a girl," said the tech. She said it with a great deal of confidence, I thought. And my observation of the picture on the screen was that, yes, it was a girl.

"Are you sure?" Kristy wasn't buying it.

I looked down at Kristy. This lady's done five sonograms today, and 3,000 in her career or something, and you're asking her if she's sure? It seemed like a move that took some nerve.

So for Kristy's sake, the tech made sure. And then Kristy started to cry.

"We're having a girl!" She looked up at me, her eyes giving expression to the joy of an answer to prayer that she hadn't allowed herself to believe she could have.

It was at this moment that I announced my decision to go public with my campaign. To bring public pressure to bear on a subject I believe in strongly.

I want to name her Audrey Joan Rowell.

The Rowell part is settled. The Joan part (Kristy's mother's name) is settled. The Audrey part? Far from settled.

I campaigned for this name up until we found out Derek was a dude, and I've campaigned for it since we found out we were having another one. Now I have a real opportunity to have a female child named Audrey, and Kristy still doesn't like the name.

Kristy says she needs to see what the name means. Unless "Audrey" is Gaelic for "eats toejam and boogers," I'm still pushing for it.

Anyway, we left the office and went to Papa and Meme's. Told them the good news, spent a little time hanging out and enjoying the weather. Watered the goldfish in the washtub in the flower bed, watched Trey and Gracie get motorcycle rides with Papa.

Then we left, and headed back into town to catch up with Ashley. She wasn't home, and we were headed home when I realized that we were going by Christen's house. And I knew we had to stop.

Christen is one of our daughters in the faith, an incredible young lady whose faith has been proven through some really rough life experiences. She came to our church with her two sisters for many years, and was an important member of our youth group. Her desire to walk with Christ has always been an inspiration to me, and I know God has huge things He wants to do with her life.

Circumstances have made it that we haven't seen much of her for several months, and, to be honest, it's eaten me up inside. Mrs. Kristy and I miss her so much.

So we stopped by the house, and her stepdad was standing in the driveway. He greeted me warmly, congratulated me on the baby, and told me Christen was inside. So I went inside, and she came to the doorway.

"Come outside. Mrs. Kristy has something to tell you."

So she and her sister came out, and gave Kristy a huge hug. Christen hugged the kids, and Kristy told them about our girl. They were excited for us; and I even got Casey to agree that Audrey was a good name, although not with the greatest amount of excitement.

And then, for the next half hour or so, we got to catch up with Christen's life. She spent a couple weeks on a missions trip with the youth group of her family's church, and her eyes lit up as she described the experience. She told us about her job, her classes, her rusty brown truck that she loves to drive, her families...her life.

And as I listened to her talk (and watched her talk, which, if you know her, you know is possible), I saw that...she's okay. Her spirit, her heart for Christ, are alive. She seems at peace with things.

Which, in the end, is the best thing I could pray for.

See, I haven't had kids old enough to leave the house yet. I don't even have kids old enough to do boneheaded things that don't come off as at least a little cute. But after the years that Kristy and I spent with our teens, leaving them to pursue a pastorate had this leaving-the-nest dynamic to it, except in reverse: we, the "parents," were the ones leaving.

And, in true freaked-out parent fashion, I've worried about them. Most of them, I've been able to stay in contact with, at least time to time, some quite a bit. And I've found that, while their journeys are not the same as they would be if we were still in each other's lives the way we were, they're finding their way, and headed in good directions.

God's taking care of them. That is, after all, His job. Yesterday, I got to see that He was doing that for Christen.

And He's taking care of us. Yesterday, I got to see that, too.

Yep, I'm full.