My Prayerful, Clairvoyant Daughter

The news has been broken and the world knows that our family is about to grow.  I do, however, have to share how Madeline has been involved in this pregnancy journey even before David and I realized that we were.

I was certain that once Madeline was involved in pre-school and began making more friends who had siblings, Madeline would begin asking for a brother or a sister.  Amazingly, Madeline never really did this.  I have heard many stories about children relentlessly pestering their parents for a brother or a sister and I, considering David's & my fertility history, was happy that this was never the case in our home.  That is, until about November.

Out of the blue, Madeline began asking for a sibling.  Of course, considering our history, how exactly do you respond to such a request from your 5 year old?  My response would simply be, "If that is what you want, Madeline, you will have to ask God for that.  You can say a prayer.  Only God knows what is right for our family.  Just because you say a prayer, that doesn't mean that you will get what you want, however if God thinks that a baby is right for our family He will give one to us."  Keep in mind that although this was my response to Madeline's request, I whole-heartedly did *not* believe that a baby was in our future.  And so, for a few DAYS, Madeline would bring up her request for a sibling.  Each time, I would respond in the same manner.  Finally after a few days of this Madeline brought up the sibling topic again as we were sitting down for dinner.  After once again after getting the same response from me, Madeline right then and there stopped and said her prayer for a sibling as a before dinner prayer.  Speechless, David and I just gave each other a "knowing" glance.....knowing in *our* sense of the word.  We "knew" that Madeline's prayer was one that was not going to be answered.  Amazingly, after that prayer, a few days after her request for a sibling began, Madeline no longer brought up the sibling topic again.  David and I were relieved and didn't give these requests another thought until we found out that I was pregnant.  You see, we estimate that these sibling requests occurred in November.  November is the month we would've conceived.  I would say that Madeline has some connections!!!!

Now for the clairvoyant piece to this story.  In January, Madeline's school held parent teacher conferences.  We made our appointment to meet with Madeline's teacher to find out that Madeline is doing great in school and she is on the right track.  All good reports (yeah!).  While at the conference, Madeline's teacher took out a stack of papers.  The stack was a sample collection of Madeline's work that she completed since the beginning of the school year.  We paged through the pile and saw drawings, handwriting, etc.  One assignment the children were asked to draw a picture of their family.  The children drew the picture and the teachers asked who is each person in the drawing.  The teacher then labeled exactly what the child said.  At the time of the conference, Madeline didn't know I was pregnant nor did the teacher.  We reached the "family portrait" in the pile of work and there were four people in the drawing.  The picture was labeled with Madeline's words (by the teacher), "Mama, Papa, Madeline & my sister but she is not here yet".  After almost falling off of our chairs, David and I looked at each other and then glanced at the date at the top of this assignment.  This was dated for November....again, the month we would've conceived.  The true question is....will the "sister" part of this be correct??  We'll find out in August.  But, as you can imagine, David and I were and still are speechless!!  The drawing that we saw currently remains in Madeline's classroom file but I will get it back at the end of the school year.  What a neat thing to place in the baby book.....especially if Madeline gets a sister.

Madeline & Margaret at P.F. Chang's

And, as a side note....When I was enjoying a sister's weekend, visiting my sisters at Marysia's house in Baltimore, Margaret, Madeline and I spent a morning at the mall while Marysia was working.  Margaret, Madeline and I stopped for lunch at P.F. Chang's.  After lunch we were given fortune cookies from our server.  My fortune simply said, "Gift".  At this point my "monthly friend" was a little late.  Four days later, a pregnancy test confirmed a gift was on the way.