Back to the Future:How T-Sam-E Came To Be (Rated PG Version)

I'm going to temporarily suspend the New Zealand photos today to bring you the story of T-Sam-E...well, part of it anyway.

It was Spring 2000. I had two beautiful kids. Meyers D was just 4 and Max-Ay 2. Life wasn't too bad and the kids were great. I was babysitting 10 yr. old and 3 yr. old boys. Watching the kids on the swingset made me really want to add one more to our family. I started to tell my hubby fairly frequently that I wanted another one, but he didn't agree. He said that we had 2 great kids. He said that we had a boy and a girl. He said that they had both been good babies. Neither one had been colicky. Each one hadn't been too difficult to train to sleep through the night. He said, that with this great track record, why would we want to screw it up?

In the meantime, our neighbor passed away. It was very tragic. His name was Don and he was a quadraplegic. He was a very happy man and had a deep faith. After his death I found out that he had been having a lot of pain, that he used medical marijuana to help him cope. I had never realized that quadraplegics could suffer pain. That was sad news to know.

Don had 3 sons and loved to watch his younger two wrestle. Don probably remembered the days when he did that, and other things like hunt, fish and just plain enjoy nature, before that tragic logging accident took his freedom from him. So one afternoon Don and his wife decided to drive their van up to Seattle, Wa to watch one of the boys wrestle. Don was driving, his van was all tricked out w/ a lift, special steering wheel, etc. so that he could drive. I'm really not sure what happened that day, but Don's van struck the cement support structure underneath the freeway overpass and was killed, instantly. His wife walked away from the scene. Tragic it was, it just all happened so fast.

Papa D and I really liked Don. Everytime he saw us out in the yard w/ the kids he'd say, "That's a fine lookin' boy you got there." (In regards to Max-Ay). Very friendly, smiley and likeable. So when they held the funeral service, of course we went. I can't remember why now, but they had two funerals for him. I went to one and Papa D went to both.

After the funeral that Papa D went to by himself, he came home from work and said, "God really nailed me at Don's funeral today." How could God nail you at a funeral, I thought. But there was really no time for details because I had two little ones and a dinner to fix.

Papa D didn't usually go to mid-week church services, but God had nailed him earlier in the day, so he just wanted to go. I stayed home with the kids and invited a girlfriend over. We were having a discussion about having a 3rd child. Her pregnancy test just turned up negative and I was telling her that Papa D just did not want to have another one. That maybe he would change his mind, but it was the furthest thing from his mind.

Then he came home from church.

I will never forget it. I was standing at the sink w/ my hands in the suds and he comes walking in. "God really nailed me at Don's funeral today," he said again.

"What do you mean? How did God nail you?" I said. I was getting very curious by now. Getting nailed at a funeral, I just had never heard of that one before.

"The funeral was great. Don comes from such a big family. He has like 11 brothers or sisters or something like that. Looking at his family just really got me thinking....while I was sitting there I just really felt like God was telling me that we are supposed to have another baby."

"What?!" I said and turned around. "Really, you are kidding me right?"
I pulled my hands out of the water and dried them off, turning around. I just stared at him.

He started to leave the kitchen, turned his head over his shoulder and said, "No, I'm serious. I'm really serious. I really feel like God is telling me that we are supposed to have another baby."

As he walked away I just smiled and shook my head. "This is too weird," I thought. "You go to a funeral and feel like God is telling you to have another baby. But I like it. Hmmm....I wonder..."

I walked up to the calendar and counted up the days in my cycle. One, two three....six, seven......nine, ten......Bam! There I was on that very day, right smack dab in the middle of my cycle. What did that mean? Fertile. Yup, you got it right, Fertile. "Hmmm.." I thought, "If he truly feels like it was God who told him we should have another one, we'll see how long it takes him to back that thought up with Action!!

A half hour later I was finding out that when this man feels like God has told him something, he doesn't wait too long to "obey" (so to speak).

Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant.

Our T-Sam-E is such a great kid. My pregnancy was miserable though. Undiagnosed, I now know that I was really depressed during my pregnancy. Also, he was nine days late and almost died during delivery. But that is another story...

All of that to say, Papa D likes hearing from God but before T-Sam was even born he made sure that he could never "obey" in that way again. So now our little family is set at 3 unless some fluke-of-nature happens. And they do happen....

Message of the day: If you don't want to have anymore kids, wear earplugs at the funeral.