Million Dollar Family?

I have had several people over the past week tell me that we'll have a "million dollar family" or "rich man's family" since we'll have a son and a daughter. I had never heard this expression before, but evidently many others have as people keep saying it to me. Before I realized that this was a common expression, I thought the first person who said it to me was referring to how much money we spent in our efforts to have/adopt children. We didn't spend anywhere near a million dollars, but we did spend over $20K on adoption and a little less than $20K on ttc. Don't get me wrong - I feel extremely blessed ("rich") that the Lord has given us a son and a daughter. For over 2 decades I had hoped I'd have at least 3-4 children, and I always hoped at least one of those would be a girl and at least one of those would be a boy. I planned to have all these children before turning 35; in God's plan, I didn't start until I was 36. I would feel just as blessed if the Lord had sent us two daughters or three sons or any other combination. To be honest, I believe having "just" one child is a huge blessing from the Lord, especially considering she arrived a little over 6 years after we started trying to have children. I think the idea that the ideal (or "rich") family contains two parents plus one daughter and one son is ridiculous - even if that soon will be the description of our family. Interestingly enough, this is not just an American belief. A colleague in my department, who grew up in China, showed me last night that in Chinese the character 好 that means "good" (or "right" or "excellent") is made up of two characters which by themselves mean 女 "daughter" and 子 "son." She said that in China it is viewed as good for a family to have two children - one son and one daughter. That seems to be in conflict with the one child policy, but I found it interesting that the American view of the composition of an "ideal" family is also held in other cultures.

I was asked at my last ultrasound if this pregnancy was planned. It can't get more planned than when you do IVF in order to conceive! I have to admit though that at times I am still in shock that I am pregnant again considering it took 5 1/2 years to conceive Nadia and only one (albeit medically, financially, and emotionally intense) cycle to conceive our son. It seems surreal to me at times, but of course my expanding waistline, feeling a little one moving within me, heartburn, etc. all remind me many times a day that yes I truly am pregnant again. Can you believe I am 20 weeks today? WAHOO! I am half-way done if he goes full-term! I can't wait to hold him in my arms, but I am hoping he'll wait until I'm at least 39 weeks along to make his grand arrival.

Yesterday Nadia fell asleep in the car around 11:40am, and we were in the car less than 5 minutes. She was OUT (see yesterday's photo); so I just carried her up and put her in her crib - shoes and all. I had planned to wait until at least 12:00 to put her down, but I figured it was close enough. Well that turned out to be the right decision as she slept until 2pm. Way to go, Nadia!!! Unfortunately she cried again when I was leaving her with Sarah; at least she "only" cried 5 minutes this time around. Wow is that hard on a Mommy's heart. I hope this phase ends soon as it was much easier to leave her when she was so happy to see Sarah. Last night Nadia went to bed at 7:20pm, and she woke up at 6:40am. Hopefully she'll take another nice long afternoon nap today.