Melanie and I have decided that we can’t wait for our financial circumstances to improve before having another child.  Because, as most all of you parents out there know, kids are so expensive that it’s almost impossible to reach a point where you feel like all the financial risks are covered and backed…

So after a 5 year hiatus, Melanie is pregnant with our 5th child.  As near as we can tell, we’ll be due in April of 2011.

Whether it’s a boy or a girl, we don’t much care.  There are certainly positives either direction.   If we have another boy, life in our home will remain largely unchanged.  We’re already equipped for boys.  We have a grasp on how to raise boys.  We won’t have to worry about separate bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.  We’ll have the starting 5 on my Finley Family Basketball Dream Team (I’ll have to graduate to coaching, I suppose.)

A girl, on the other hand, would be fun.  She’d be spoiled and protected.  She’d bring a sense of closure and completeness to the family.  And Mel would finally have another female in the clan.

If I could pick, I’d choose a boy.  But if we end up with a daughter, I’m cool.

Either way, this will keep me parentally committed until I’m 50.  Possibly longer.  And that’s fine by me.  I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m unlikely to become so successful in my current vocation that I would ever reach the point of affluence where I’d be eager to ship the kids off so Mel and I could become world travelers.  And besides, I don’t want to reach a point where we look back and long for more children and time with the family – but can do nothing to remedy such a regret because we’re past our prime.

So bring it!  Heavenly Father, please watch over and protect Melanie and this child.   Keep them healthy and safe.  Help us to ready a place in our home and our hearts for one more of your children to be born into the glory of the Truth and the saving knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.