1 + 1 = ?

Maths is a subject specifically designed for tormenting children with... Adults too sometimes...

But there are some things even maths won't work out...
1 + 1 = 2, right?

Well, it does, sometimes... But 1 + 1 can also be 3.

About 2 months ago, my dear wife and I, one bright and sunny morning, discovered that 1 (her), and 1 (me), was soon going to = 3. That's right. She is busy working on a new member for our little family. Life is great, right?! :). So it is. She was shocked, I was excited. From memory, I believe I even went so far as to jump up and down... Very undignified I am sure, but at moments like that, who cares!!?

Cherith had been feeling just a tad nauseous that morning, and in a fit of cheekiness, I suggested that it may be more that a disagreeable breakfast. Her response was to take a test, and lo and behold, my snap suggestion as to what might be happening turned out spot on. So it's a baby. And seeing as the only options are boys and girls, I guess we are having a boy... Or a girl........

So that's it. Sometime near the end of November or the beginning of December our little family will be experiencing a population boom. 

Last week we had the pleasure of hearing the little rascal's heartbeat, still very quiet, but definitely ticking away steadily. It was a strange moment, in the doctor's office, listening for that faintest beat. Somehow, it brought to mind the awesomeness of the thing. The baby was at the time approx 2 inches long! Imagine the size of it's heart?? That is one tiny ticker. But there it was.

It made me wonder how many people who want an abortion would still have one after hearing their own baby's heartbeat for half a minute... I don't know, but I think a few would change their mind. The heartbeat makes it real, alive, palpable. It is no longer an ignorable fact, but a living being. It makes it seem so much more like killing, because at some stage during an abortion, that little tiny heart stops.

Of course, many people have miscarriages, many unavoidable (at least seemingly). That too is a death. Hearing that heartbeat made me think of how traumatic that would be. I had never before understood why it was such a horrible experience, emotionally, for someone to have a miscarriage. But there's that heartbeat, ticking away... Living.... Only waiting to be born......

Keeping out the cold.

So the cold weather is coming. A week ago I was leaving for work with the water frozen in the windscreen of our car. So the temperature is steadily settling into it's winter rhythm. But there is a difference. We now have a fireplace. :)

Thanks to some help from Cherith's youngest brother, (who was staying with us for a few weeks while he worked nearby) who managed to move the 140kg stove into the lounge room for us, and my father-in-law, who is a carpenter and worked on fitting the chimney, we now have an amazingly snug and warm living room. Even my office, which is next door is feeling distinctly less chilly.

Growing up my family had a woodfire in the lounge room, and as my bedroom was at the opposite end of the house, it meant that in the mornings there was quite an incentive to race to the fireplace (which my mum would fire up at about 5AM every day in winter), and warm ourselves around it. It was one of those situations were things had to get worse to get better. I'd have to leave my moderately warm bed, race up the freezing cold hallway, through the dining room, and into the lounge room, for a nice toasty morning! Now I get to be the one who stokes up the fire in the morning, and get the house nice and warm for my wife! :).

Just remembering that, made me think about the saying 'things sometimes have to get worse before they can get better'. Very few people start life with everything in their favor. It takes hard work, and the proverbial 'blood, sweat, and tears' to make improvements in life. Just the same way a person has to brave the cold morning in order to start the fire, a person who wants to get somewhere in life has to start with step 1. You can't jump to the ending when life is all rosy and easy, smooth and comfortable. Life is generally tough to begin with. But that's no reason to dodge the tough streak. The key is to work through the tough spots in life, and keep your focus on the things that are important, and not let yourself get depressed by whatever difficulties you may be facing. Life is good. And it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of your life circumstances. The key is that you are happy with where your life is going, and are prepared to weather storms in order to be able to enjoy smoother sailing that so often follows a difficult time.