Dreams and Spiritual wonder...

By week seven, with the baby the size of a lentil bean, the heart already beating, I try to take stock of my life and the place my wife and I are spiritually. Can we pray more? Absolutely. Can we do more to help build the church? Of course.

All the while, I am contemplating the idea of this gift I must live for my wife and child. I have trouble sleeping. I am constantly dreaming freakish dreams of fatherhood gone right or horribly wrong. I sit with my wife and try to ease her nausea. I prepare lunches for work with a good deal of dry munchies to keep the hunger at bay. She is sleeping constantly, exhausted by the baby growing inside and the full day of Kindergarten she teaches.

I am mentally exausted. I read about babies. What they eat, drink, sleep in around, and about.

I read about pregnancy. No soft cheeses. No caffeine. No smoking. No drinking. No sit ups. No dieting, but don't eat too much. No cold cuts. No stress.

The benefits of Lamaze. I learn what a "doula" is. What are the top 50 questions to ask your OB on your first visit? When is your first visit?

And the only thing that I can mumble to people is "we're eccstatic."

We are exausted. At the end of it all are full of excited anticipation that gets us up way before dawn to talk about it and keeps us up late at night praying about it.

I'd like to believe all of this is natural. That it is a very real process that two young first-time parents go through. No wonder you love your children. No wonder God loves us. You can't give this much for someone and not love them, want the best for them, need them to grow and thrive.