Broseph is Five!

Ambrose Joseph, BroJoe, Broseph, Chicken, Buddy, Brosey, Silly goose, Goober, Goofball. So many names for this little dude. (Hey! There’s another one we use.) Whatever we call him, he is five. Five is an interesting milestone in our family. Probably starting with number four or five, I have begged every child not to turn five. No kid is ever as cute as they were before five years old. They want to get older and gain independence and I want to have my sweet funny kid back and not have them grow up and leave. They have all refused and every kid has turned five once. And I am always sad.

Having a baby at 42 after almost five years of no babies was a challenge I would never have chosen to undertake. This little guy brought such joy to all of my family. The excitement we had from everyone when we announced was actually quite a surprise to me. I was not asking to go through another pregnancy and change diapers again and upend the life we had, but being open to life is not something we control. It is a choice that Todd and I made to give everything to God and trust Him with everything including our fertility.

We have a story for each time we trusted God to give us another child. Sometimes we were asking, sometimes we were surprised not surprised and sometimes we made a conscious albeit spontaneous choice to name our love nine months later. Ambrose was a fluke of my changing hormones and God putting me in my place when I arrogantly told people that my pattern was broken and I was surely done. It wasn’t an odd numbered year- we had already passed 2015 and 2017 and since we had had one or two babies every other year between 1999 and 2013, surely I was finished right? How do you make God laugh again? Be arrogant and make plans. I’m good at both. Having him when I thought God wouldn’t do this to me again is the reason that I rocked him to sleep for naps and didn’t mind not getting anything done. It’s the reason I snuggled him a little longer and held him a little tighter every day. When he turned two, I knew for a fact there would be no more and I am happy I accepted this little one with open arms and trusted that God had plans for this little one, Todd, me and even our whole family.

This birthday is the end of an era. I know that we will now have lots of these with this tail end baby boy. He may be a challenge and it may be a struggle to have such a gap from the other boys, but he reminds me every day why God placed me where I am. He has stretched my patience and tested my resolve later in life. He gets away with things that his older brothers and sisters would have been chastised for and he is a constant reminder that God is in charge and He knows how to challenge us to love deeper and cherish every moment.