Glory of Home Life

Trina’s parents were in town for the last couple of weeks, and we had a great time catching up with them. For our kids, it’s a time of celebration and confusion. Celebration because Mimi and Papi are present and they know how to have fun (unlike those mean old parents), and confusion because they often lose sight of the old routine: school, chores, the like.

Credit to the kiddos, though: they pulled through and knocked out the majority of their schoolwork. We’re still struggling with honesty in some things (reading, for instance), but we’ve found that even if they don’t read what we tell them, they’re still reading good things. After all, we only stock our shelves with books we don’t mind our kids reading.

The last few days of the visit were spent in Surfside Beach, TX, about a half-hour south of Galveston Island. It was a day full of choppy surf, fishing, sand castles, and an ever-present layer of salty spray on everything. We also learned definitively that we were expecting baby number six in January. We’re still early, but it’s an exciting development in the Trousdell household which, I hope, never grows old.

Six children. I don’t know what to think. On the ride home, we were discussing the meaning of six kids, and I told Trina that it just had a different ring than five. With five, people may still excuse you for “accidentally” having that many. We’ve heard just about all there is to hear from people when they find out we have five children – everything but anger, I’d say. We’ve yet to have someone get upset at us for being reckless or irresponsible. I wonder if six rugrats in tow will bring it about since, at this point, it’s clear we’re doing this on purpose.

No matter what people may say, we’re tickled to have another baby on the way. Or, if my seven-year-old has her way, we’re tickled to have twin girls on the way. She’s got a lot more confidence than we do, though Trina is nearly 35 and I’ve been informed that your probability of having twins increases significantly at that point.

This brings me to the point of today’s post: making lemonade out of lemons. Trina has been using this phrase a lot recently, and it got me thinking about just how you’d have to make lemonade out of lemons – by squeezing the hell out of them.

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I started this post a number of days ago, but here’s where it pivots in substance but not in its nature. We’re still trying to make lemonade based on life’s lemons.

We recently learned that Trina was pregnant with our sixth child which was a cause for great celebration. I find it interesting that even after doing this six times, I find myself just as excited as with the first. Every new life, based on the experience I’ve had with our five children, is dramatically different. Every pregnancy is different.

We knew Trina was pregnant because she had missed her period and there was a very faint line on the pregnancy test. Blood draw confirmed that Hcg levels were elevated (indicating pregnancy).

But they never took off like they had in the past. Eventually, they started to drop and after a few days, Trina miscarried.

I won’t pretend that losing a child at ~6 weeks pregnant is as devastating as losing a child later in pregnancy or any time after birth, but there is a sense of loss. The swing from elation (upon learning of the pregnancy) to sadness also contributes, as the delta is rather large between the two. Envisioning the child is also difficult, as in my mind I see a laughing baby boy with the typical Trousdell blond hair.

This little baby was with us for some happy moments, too. We took a family beach trip in that time with the grandparents. We celebrated Joseph’s 3rd birthday. We had tee-ball games for Henry. Family movie nights. And the Catholic Church teaches that this little baby’s soul came into being at the moment of conception, so we are grateful to have created a few memories for him before he was spontaneously called to a higher level of work by God the Father.

Perhaps unironically, the girls were desperate to set up a lemonade stand yesterday. We made some from scratch and it was delicious. They sold a few cups at $0.50 each (including one to their little brother – no family discounts!) and were quite pleased.

So we’ve now formally joined the ranks of parents with babies on Earth and in Heaven, and we will ask this little one to intercede for us as often as possible. Perhaps his petitions will result in twins the next time we conceive.

Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings, and for life at all stages.