Counting down...

37 weeks.

I cannot believe that I have already been pregnant with this baby for 37 weeks. That sounds like such a long time, doesn't it?

But it feels like the blink of an eye.

My baby is due three weeks from now - and though I am so excited to hold him or her in my arms soon, I am definitely not done holding him or her in my womb yet.

The middle of the night wiggles. The kids feeling the kicks and squirms when I read to them. That sweet little foot parked permanently on my right side, just under my ribs. The full belly. The being of "We" rather than just "Me." It's all just so precious a gift, so beautiful a miracle.

I am so blessed to have been a part of this aspect of God's creation six times now. I wouldn't trade a moment of any of my pregnancies.

And I know I wouldn't trade a moment of any of my times with my newborns and babies and toddlers and children either... all of it has been such a glorious gift.

But 37 weeks - only 3 (plus or minus) left - this particular gift has a time limit. And this one is almost up.

So I am soaking in each wiggle, each foot jab, each head turn, each achy little contraction that is just slightly reminiscent of the labor to come, the beautiful moment of meeting this child for the first time - just on the horizon.

Everything is perfect. The lack of posting is only due to lack of time allotted to this machine - not due to lack of wonderful moments to write about. The children are all well. My sweet Little Bug just celebrated his first birthday last month, and Finny and Punky turned 7 and 9. Loose ends are getting tied up, to-do items are getting checked off as I prepare for the newest arrival. School is still being taught (and learned - though admittedly with less passion on both sides than was felt in the fall!). The freezer will be stocked in the days to come. The homebirth kit is ready and waiting. The boy and girl quilts I so badly wanted to make are sewn and done and sitting beautifully in the bassinet - and soon enough a baby will be in one of them.

And so begins this 38th week - and as I sign off, my sweet babe is hiccuping away. Oh how I'll miss those hiccups. But oh how cute they'll be in person, no doubt...

I've had too much to do with my family and have found it difficult to spare my precious time to sit in front of my computer to post much at all.

And I'm not really posting now, since I think it would be more fruitful to go up to bed and read a book before falling asleep.

But I just had to write that I am sitting at my desk here and my unborn baby is wiggling sweetly (26 weeks tomorrow). My dryer is humming in the background and my five beautiful babes are asleep in their beds. My hubby is at his best friend's house for a much needed evening with his childhood buddies, so I am enjoying a quiet, peaceful evening alone. I feel so very blessed in this tiny little moment.

To get to feel the wiggles and kicks of this sixth little blessing - a child I always wanted but honestly never even dared to dream might really become a reality. And here he or she is, so alive, so active, so real and already a part of our family. And I look at the rest of them - from ten months up to almost nine years old - and I can hardly believe I am the one who gets the privilege and joy of raising them all.

Will the movements of a baby in pregnancy ever lose their novelty? Not for me. The novelty of having children, and watching them grow in their relationships with their parents and with each other? Nope. It still humbles me almost daily.

I am so very, very blessed. Thank you Lord. For everything.