Close Cousins

Two years ago, I never would have imagined that Mr. Boy would have a sweet little boy cousin almost exactly his age. But, lo and behold, here they are!

In December of 2010, we went to Disney World with Adam’s entire family. I didn’t feel great for most of the trip, but I chalked it up to exhaustion from two extremely long travel days. And who doesn’t get a little nauseous after riding the Rockin’ Roller Coaster and Space Mountain?

Inwardly, I did wonder if I might be pregnant, but I figured it was unlikely. And it certainly didn’t cross anyone else’s mind. Adam and I were both extremely busy with seminary and work. Besides, we had made it pretty clear that we weren’t even thinking about children until graduation was on the horizon. Ha.

Ironically, throughout the whole week at Disney World, my brother-in-law Sean {married to Adam’s sister} kept bugging my sister-in-law Rebekah {married to Adam’s brother…sorry is this getting confusing?} about having a third baby. To which she continually and emphatically responded “WE ARE DONE, Sean! DONE!” But he kept going on and on and on about how they really needed a third, just trying the get a rise out of her. Bek was adamant, though. They were done at two. We laugh now.

We got home from Disney World and found out I was pregnant.  We announced it to the Rice family on Christmas night, and everyone was shocked! But thrilled too, of course.

Then, a few weeks later Adam got a call {or text? I can’t remember} from his brother Bo asking us to call him back when we were together because he and Rebekah needed to talk to us. Hmmm, what could this be about? We were racking our brains wondering what they were going to tell us. Were they moving? Had something bad happened?

We called them in the car while on the way back from a friend’s house and put the phone on speaker. Bo said something along the lines of, “You know how Ali and Hannah {our nieces} are close cousins? Well, your baby is going to have a close cousin too!”

WHAT?!?!?!?!? Of course, we were so surprised! And so excited. I loved, loved, loved growing up with close cousins. It was such a fun part of childhood.

And I loved being pregnant at the same time as Rebekah, a seasoned mother who has so generously shared much wisdom and advice about pregnancy and motherhood. Throughout the first half of our pregnancies, we were both convinced that we were having girls. But God knew what we didn’t know. He knew that a precious blonde-headed, blue-eyed boy was growing in me and a precious dark-headed, brown-eyed boy was growing in Bek. And he knew that these sweet baby boys would be born just two weeks apart.

I’m so thankful that the Lord’s plans always prevail over our own. And I’m thankful that HE is meticulously sovereign over every detail of our little individual stories, including the details of when we have children and which children we have. I can’t wait to see the plans that He has for these little Rice boy cousins. I hope they have many fun days together making precious memories. But more than anything, I pray they realize at an early age that life is not really about their little individual stories. Life is about God’s big story. And may their precious lives be a part of that big story. . .for the glory of His name and the advancement of His kingdom.