Pop quiz!

Hello there, readers. Long time, no blog. There's plenty to say about back-to-school happenings, life in general, but I thought I'd start instead with a pop quiz:

What do 

James van der Beek...

(aka "Dawson")

Chip Gaines...

and my husband

have in common?

If you guessed, "occasionally unruly grooming styles," 

you would in fact be correct, 

but the answer we were looking for is...

They all have five children.

Yes, you read that correctly. 

Coming the end of March 2019, another little bouncing baby will join our clan.

(Not actually Isaiah's reaction when we told him. Ha!

Actually, he and his siblings danced on the front porch with joy 

while eating a fudgesicle after we shared our news with them. 

{I'm never one to let an important announcement or milestone pass without dessert of some sort...})

We are very happy and excited, but also deeply humbled by being given the gift of another child. It sounds so trite to say that we are "blessed" -- it's downright hashtag-gy -- and yet it actually is the truest of words to use. My heart is very in awe by how unworthy I feel and how immense the joy another child brings.

I spent a few moments scrolling through old baby pictures of our Big Four today and found myself choked up by the "just-yesterday" sensation those old photos gave me. I'm already halfway between Noah's birth and high school graduation, and frankly, I suspect the tween/teen years will go immeasurably faster than the other stages we've surpassed with him thus far.

My little girl is in kindergarten full time now.

Really, you don't have to tell me how fast the years go by.

So for this reason, and countless others, I am delighted to have a new face around our dining room table. A new set of ears to listen to "Goodnight, Moon." A new soul to join our family and the world at large.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

{PS I only learned, through Instagram, of COURSE, that "Dawson" from "Dawson's Creek" has five children. Five very cute, very blond, seemingly quite close in age children. I was actually quite startled by that. If you google "celebrities who have big families," 90% have big families because they are with multiple partners.... James van der Beek and his wife, and the Gaines', are pretty much the exception. Anyway, if you have Instagram, James van der Beek's posts on fatherhood are quite inspiring.}