Happy Valentine's Day

After sharing about my husband's gift of giving, now I get to share about my Heavenly Father and His extravagant love. Last night, we had a wonderful surprise when we found out that I am pregnant with my third child. After going out to eat and running a few errands (one of which was purchasing a pregnancy test), I dutifully performed the task and watched in amazement as the test showed a very clear positive result. After staring in disbelief for a few moments, I declared "Happy Belated Valentine's Day!" to my husband and handed him the stick to see for himself. Needless to say, we are absolutely thrilled (and somewhat in shock). The girls were tickled pink (or blue?), as were our parents, when we shared the news.

Now for the rest of the surprise... I suspect that I am about 3 months along. I am usually very aware of my body and the signals it sends to let me know that things are not normal. This time, my body sent quite a few obvious signals, and I just missed them all (actually, I had a perfectly good explanation for all of them).

First, the biggie... I missed my cycle for 3 months. Lest I seem too blond, I took a pt in December and it was negative; so when I missed two more times, I just assumed something was wrong with my hormones and started trying to contact my doctor for a yearly exam.

Then there was weight gain, which I easily blamed on overeating during the holidays... except that I kept gaining after the first of the year. I blamed that on winter and lack of exercise.

Next came the chronic stuffy nose, the head cold I couldn't seem to get over (well, it was cold and flu season). And the extreme tiredness that made me want to fall into bed at 7pm every night (must have been the lingering head cold).

I also had low backache and sore breasts, which I thought was linked to my whacked out hormones (and they were :o) I just never put all these symptoms together to come to the conclusion that I was pregnant.

Now for the 'God thing'... friends and family have been asking me for a couple of years if we were going to have another child. My response was always, "I don't know... I don't know (wistfully) if Anna will be my last baby, and I don't know (cautiously) if I should go through another pregnancy. I don't know how to make that decision."

Well, I didn't have to decide... my gracious Lord, who knows all and controls all, has decided in His infinite wisdom to give us another child. Halleluiah! And if that was not blessing enough, He has also given me an easy start (i.e. no morning sickness). For that, I am also truly thankful.

Extravagant Love

My husband is a giver. Now don't get me wrong... I enjoy giving, too, but I usually consider the cost first. I guess you'd call me a 'practical' giver. But not my husband... no, he is an extravagant giver. It's not that he lavishes us with expensive gifts. I have never received a car with a big red bow for Christmas or pricey jewelry for my birthday, although there is no doubt he'd give it if we could afford it. In fact, we live modestly and keep most celebrations low key, preferring to celebrate with special meals, time spent together and simple, but thoughtful gifts.

However, there have been several occasions when my sweet man comes home with a bag of new clothes for me, just because he loves to do it. He's been known to arrive at the door after being out of town for work with special surprises for the girls, and I'm not talking about candy. Just this week, he came home from a trip the day before Valentine's Day with pastel-colored roses, heart-shaped balloons, and a gift card for each of the girls, and a dozen red roses and a gift certificate for me. Of course, the girls and I were all smiles and hugs, but I had to refrain from tallying the money spent in my head. All I had to give him was a bag of cherry cordial Hershey kisses... something of a treat, but certainly nothing extravagant.

This past Christmas, he actually began to fret about the gifts he had bought for us. Understand that my husband is not a "fretter". But as he laid out our gifts on the bed to wrap them, he called out to me, "I need to do some more shopping; this just isn't enough!" Even though in his head he knew that he was giving good gifts, his heart wanted it to be so much more. Again, I was tempted to think, "It will blow our Christmas budget!" but instead I reminded myself that it is just an expression of his love... an extravagant love.

And it's not just gifts he gives. He is always willing to give of himself, whether it is lending a hand to family or friends, serving at the church, or using his skills and knowledge to help others. He does it willingly, not out of a sense of obligation, and he does it cheerfully without complaining.

I know that some may think, "So what? That isn't what I'd call extravagant!" And I understand what they mean in terms of money spent or the number of gifts given. But what I am trying to describe is my husband's ability to love and his desire to show his love... the generosity of his heart. I compare it to my Heavenly Father's love for me... His desire to give exceedingly, abundantly more than I want or need.

We once had a minister friend who was exhorting a few of the church leaders by pointing out the spiritual gifts he saw in each of them. When he came to my husband, his eyes welled up with tears as he said, "Now this guy... he just has such a great capacity to love!" Yep, that's my guy!