Who knew? (Exciting News)

I've known since college that I wanted 3 kids.  Two boys and a girl.  I didn't think I could handle all the girlie-ness.  I was pretty much a tomboy growing up.  My dad used to tell me when he coached me in softball, that I spent more time in the dirt than the lines did.  I also always knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom.  I loved that my mom was one. Even  when I was older, the job she had was always during school hours.  She dropped us at school every morning and picked us up after school.  She ran my brother and I to all our activities all over town.  Sometimes at the same time on different sides of town.  I couldn't have had a better life growing up.  We traveled, had a nice house, and cars.  I had a car in high school and a cell phone (a huge rarity then).  I'm sure my parents spend a fortune on baseball, softball, basketball, cheerleading, soccer, track, piano lessons, and dance.   I wanted my kids to have the same opportunities.


So when I met Joel, everything just fell into place.  He agreed with my traditional viewpoints.  Because he is 5 years older, I was pretty young when Jocy was born.  Back then, it was a bit of a bummer as most of our friends weren't even thinking about starting a family.  But it worked for us.  I'm grateful for it now.   I'm the young mom at school.  And I can tell you, pregnancy is a LOT easier in your 20s that 30s.


About a year after Nate was born, Joel and I were talking..... are we really done?  I was almost 31 when he was born.  3 kids in 5 years.    And Nate was such a wonderful baby, could we do it again one more time?  We gave it some thought for a while and finally said what the heck.  We tried and failed.  We had no issues getting pregnant with Jocy and Nate.  Elly took about 6 months.  Must be those even numbers.  I was so frustrated.  Our neighbor got pregnant when we were trying.  I was really happy for her since it was a struggle for her but sad at the same time. In fact our whole neighborhood was a baby boom!!  There was at least twice I was sure we were pregnant.  Now that I look back, I know it was NOT the time for us.  I was unhappy, Joel was unhappy at work, lots of stress.... I'm sure that was the problem.  I so needed out of Liberty.  Small town life seems nice.  But I'm so NOT suburban girl.  I love being in the city.  I hated driving 40 minutes down to the fun stuff.  And come the weekend (if Joel wasn't working), I was too tired to want to make the drive.  My highlights of life at the time were MNO and my bi-weekly kickboxing class.  I swear that class saved my sanity.  And our house..... was getting smaller by the day.  It was great when we moved in with one kid but with three, I was suffocating.  Plus,  I missed our life in Detroit.  I know we could never do it again with kids.  And truthfully, I'm glad we aren't still there.  But I need to be close to stuff like that.  I need more!


So once we were happily settled into Istanbul, we had the conversation again.  We decided its do or die time.  If I didn't get pregnant by spring, we were done.  That was my true New Year's resolution!


And lo and behold.....  

   We are expecting the 4th and FINAL baby Beckerman!!!

I've been very hesitant about announcing, I'm not sure why.  Are people really going to care about the 4th one?  We are very excited.  Our family now feels complete.  And yes, this is it.  I know this is what I can handle.  We can afford it, our new place is big enough, and with three kids in school next year, I can really enjoy the last baby.  I always joked I wanted the last one conceived in a foreign country.........