Everyone keeps asking whether we’re planning on having more children after Maggie. The answer is invariably at this point “We don’t know, but not right this minute.” And then I tell them about how I had my doubts we could even handle three successfully…
Shortly after Liam was born, we headed to church one Sunday morning. Now, our church in Denton was a big place, with a large campus that had several buildings that housed different sunday schools and programs. Kathy and I would typically split up to distribute the kids to their respective rooms and then meet up back in the sanctuary for the service. On this day, we had done our usual drill, and the service had been going on for about 10 minutes when I made it to the sanctuary, spotted Kathy, excuse-me’d past about 5 people to get to the seat next to her, and plopped down gratefully.
Kathy looked over at me, stared for a moment, and said “Where’s Liam?” I thought for a moment, thought for a moment more, and answered “In the car. I’ll be right back.” I climbed back over the 5 people, slipped out, and started running flat out back to the car, which was, of course, parked all the way across campus from where I was.
As I sprinted past, people who were still in the parking lot stared at me, wondering what on earth could be so important as to require that kind of urgency. After bearing their stares for a few minutes, I made it to the car, and found Liam, still blissfully asleep in the back seat, where I had forgotten about him. I hopped in, checked to be sure he was still ok, and then realized that if I got out immediately with him, everyone who had seen me sprint past would realize that I was a horrible father and would probably act on the spot to take my son away from his neglectful parent. So, now assured that Liam was fine, I sat in the car listening to A Prairie Home Companion until I was pretty sure that everyone had wandered off or been distracted by other things. Then I sedately made my way back to the sanctuary, Liam’s carrier safely in hand, grateful that my absent mindedness hadn’t caused any more problems than it had.
And now, we’ve got four. Wish our kids luck.