The Envelope

There is an envelope sitting unopened on our kitchen counter.  It’s been sitting there sealed tight since January 6th.  The contents of this envelope bear great repercussions for our entire family. 

Many people question why we even have the envelope.  We could have known what was inside of it 8 weeks ago.

But we like to be surprised.  (of find some strange joy in self-torture)

So, we turned our heads.

But, then, just for fun, we decided to ask them to put a picture of something (or nothing) in our envelope.  That’s right… we could know anytime whether we have 2 boys and 2 girls in our family or 1 boy and 3 girls.

Anytime we wanted we could go to the stack of important papers on our counter (you know those “to be filed” papers hidden behind the computer) and slit it open and know if it is a little boy or little girl that’s been kicking my ribs for the past few weeks.

We have never known before the birth of our first three children and  I’ve truly loved being surprised at delivery.  I look back at each memory of Scott calling out the baby’s gender fondly.  The look in his eyes as he saw our child for the first time and then as I hear him tell me, “It’s a …” was truly priceless and made all the waiting worthwhile to me.

But at the same time, everyone’s surprised, right?  It’s just a mater of when you are surprised that’s at issue.  It sure would be nice to stock the nursery up with the appropriate gender baby clothes and do a clean sweep of un needed clothes stored in our attic.

But, no, that ship has sailed and we turned our heads, so now, there’s no looking back.  (or peeking in the envelope)  And thus, the envelope sits rather unceremoniously in our pile of clutter.  Sitting as a family around the sonogram screen is one thing, but to just walk over to the counter and open an envelope, seems way too anti-climatic in my opinion. 

So, did you choose to be surprised at 20 or 40 weeks?  Ever have any regrets?