And Baby Makes Three...

Wow. My husband and I just kept repeating this three-letter very insightful word. Wow. We're going to have another baby. Wow. With a 10 year old and a 6 year old, we weren't expecting to find ourselves here again. But wow. What an incredible and wonderful surprise. My mind wanders ahead 5 or so years as it did with the birth of each of my children. I imagine their relationships with each other and smile. I fast forward 10 years and imagine our house full of friends and girlfriends and boyfriends and laughter. A big, loud, chaotic, fun house. That's what I've always wanted. We are thrilled, surprised, shocked, excited, and scared. Because mothers do worry about everything that can go wrong, I worry we've tempted fate too many times with two beautiful healthy children. Are we too greedy to expect a third? Am I really too old to do this a third time? Is a third c-section healthy? I have been praying and I hope you will join me in praying for a healthy pregnancy and delivery and a third beautiful healthy baby to join the Dippel clan. For those keeping count, that's five grandchildren on my side and ten on David's. I love being this baby's mom already as much as I love being it's brother and sister's mom. Wow.

Team Dippel takes it to Germany

We have just returned from a family vacation to Munich Germany. It was our first trip to Europe and we took the kids--whew! We were visiting David's brother and his family who are living and working there for a couple of years with his company's Munich office. It was the trip of a lifetime and I see how people get the "travel bug!" David and I both want to go back just as soon as we can. What struck me the most is how young America seemed in comparison. Every building there seemed to date back hundreds of years (at least). Most had been re-built after being demolished in the war. The churches were amazing--there is no other word. I thought of what I might show folks visiting here as "must-sees." There are many of course, Barton Creek, Antones, the Capitol.....but none with the rich historical history of Southern Germany. Another thing that struck me is that I thought many times about David's brother, Daniel, whom we lost too soon to cancer in 2005. I thought about how much fun he would have had on that trip hanging out with his younger and older brother seeing parts of Germany they hadn't seen before. What a blessing to spend that time with David's brother and his beautiful family, and to expose the kids to Europe at such a young age. What a privilege! We can't wait to do it again.