almost seven years ago mike and i learned i was NOT in menopause. way to much information already i know, but truly an amusing, typical pfaff story. you see, i'd never had a hot flash in my LIFE. and, my mother went through "the change" in her forties...so naturally (thinking that must be hereditary), when my first ever hot flash flushed through my body...i knew. i knew several things actually. one: i was done. two: i was willing to do anything to be done with hot flashes. in one of my trillion "medical" calls to kar, she advised me perfectly. she doubted my own diagnosis ever so slightly because of my age, but honestly, was with me. before we hung up, she flippantly added, "hey kim, the first thing they will ask is if you have done a test." i cut her off adamantly telling her that there was no way i was pregnant. as always she listened, and then finished...do one first so you can say, "i've done a test and it was negative." i complied. plus, kim doesn't turn tests positive. with tod we spent a weeks worth of groceries on those tests...negative. same with craig, and cole. so that morning, i did what i had done so many times before, knowing the results already. all i can say is IF my reaction could have been caught on camera, mike and i would have won funniest home videos...except it would have been in a really sad kinda way. you see, that little test was GLOWING...like lights on a Christmas tree. a first. i knew something else that morning. God was laughing his butt off! He was cracking Himself right up while crumbling my OCD, well thought out, well organized, "plans" for the way our lives were gonna go. i was on my own road...and He threw me right back to Him. it was the only place for me..in those next seconds as i tried to find air...and it was the only place for us in the next 8 weeks of almost silence disbelief...as we tried to make sense of it all. shock is really an understatement. tod almost fell off the chair at the dinner table when we told him...and if we had THAT reaction on video we would be another 10K richer. His disgusted response was: "Do you have ANY idea how OLD I AM?" i still laugh...at 15 you DO think it's all about you...and he was a little slow with his math. He hadn't calculated that his parents would be almost SIXTY when the little tyke graduated from high school!
God had plans for us...this we knew because the Bible tells us so...but we didn't know, if you know what i mean. our fourth blessing would change all of us. first, telling family and friends. amazing response. perhaps because they felt such sympathy for my crying self...OR they were truly afraid of my mental state and went the LIVE STRONG route. either way, it worked. the support and prayers we received from family and friends was absolutely essential and life changing. dr. neal was next. without a doubt he would laugh right along with God. dr. neal loved, and continues to love, giving us a hard time. i started off our appointment with refusals. old age requires certain things that i refused to do...like stick needles through belly buttons...no, no, no. not then, not ever. thankfully, preganancies were all easy for the most part. i always had too much fluid and measured like i was having triplets but other than that they were, thank you God, easy. mike decided early on that he would have his way, finally, in not finding out the sex of the baby. so at each sonogram, which were plentiful due to the fluid issue, we had to explain that we did NOT want to know a thing. dr. neal did write what sex he thought i was carrying on a sheet of paper that he kept in my file...later gave to us...and we kept it hid in the drawer of our bedroom. if i remember correctly, i believe my sister-in-laws looked and knew but that's it. every single delivery nurse on the floor was in our room that morning as we got close to delivery...all because we were OLD, having our FOURTH, and didn't know the sex...
reed and dr. neal
it was the 4th of january, 4th induction, 4th birth...and our 4th son!
birth is one of the holiest of events...a time we truly felt God's powerful presence. the hospital stay was one of the best. the bonding between tod, craig, cole, and baby reed is a memory forever etched on this momma's heart. i remember tod begging us to call him in sick to Jesuit so he could stay with me at the hospital while mike was at work. All three of the boys were such a big help when we came home.
six years later...
Happy 6th Birthday Reeder Joe!
Future Firefighter
Ethan
