There is an empty seat at the table and a bed room that is empty. There is an unwillingness to start donating or selling our baby stuff. There is dialog about selling the mini-van and buying a bigger van. There are more bikes in our garage than kids in our household. Finally, there is a lot of excitement in our home.

After Sarah and I had our third child, Timmy, in October 2010 many people asked us the question “are you guys done”. I understand why people ask this question and I don’t judge them for asking it but how can we determine when we will be “done” having kids? The canned answer we always give is “we’ll take what God gives us”.

Sarah and I are blessed with three children and all of us are excited for our 4th child that is due at the end of April 2013. To Sarah and I it feels normal to be pregnant and adding to our family but we chuckle at the comments we may get from others. Some of them include “Are you crazy?”, “You know how to prevent that, right?” or “You need a hobby.” We don’t judge them for those comments but it only encourages us to be committed to spreading the message of the teachings in our Catholic faith. We’re not spreading the message of “they who have the most kids win” (which is sometimes the misconception of our Catholic teachings) but rather that children are a gift from God, that God would not give us anything we can’t handle and that “making children” is truly a spiritual moment in the Sacrament of Marriage.

In the last two years, Sarah and I have really engrossed ourselves in Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and it has really opened our eyes to the Sacrament of Marriage. Sarah and I are both cradle Catholics and although we were taught about the true Sacrament of Marriage and the blessings of children we never fully understood it until our recent studies.

So, no, we are not crazy and we do have hobbies. We are just having our 4th child and we are ready to place him or her at the empty seat at the kitchen table.

~God Bless~