BABY HUNGRY!

Ok I know this is a little creepy but I thought It would be funny to see what "the baby-maker" online thought our kid would look like . . . wow, if this isn't encouragment to

not have kids I dont know what is! haha! I like how the baby has its mothers red eyes from the pictures :) I thought this picture lead right into this discussion...

Chad and I have only been married 9 months now but we want another little Merrell so badly! I never thought that at age twenty I would feel this baby hungry. I want to express the severity of my condition, baby hunger is no laughing matter, its no common cold, its a serious condition that doesnt do away, its like mono, once you get it it never fully goes away and you have occassional 'relapses' if you will, when your symptoms return, your more likely to have it again and again after you get it once. Baby hunger is one of those conditions.

Symptoms include:

**Baby sighting- this is when your more able to sight a baby in a crowd and adore it despite its lack of relation)

**little clothes shopping-this is when you purchase miniture clothes, shoes, hair bands, and booties, regardless of your ability to use them.

**Griting of the teeth-this generall happens when holding an adorable infant or tickling a babys cheeks, invoulentary teeth grinding.

**Invoulentary Vocal Outbursts- this is often pair with teeth grinding, but can occur without worning, its when your voice makes really high pitched scoopy baby noises, this can also cause spontanious 'Oooos' and 'Ergs' that express the inability to describe the cutness of a child.

I have experience all of these symptoms this week and my husband is WORRIED to say the least. I now have a box of baby clothes, everything from booties, mini nikes, little ties, dresses, beanies and even a small collection of baby hair flowers ( so sad people) that I have no idea where they came from, I must have slowly accumulated them, because I can imagine justifying purchasing one cute little baby thing everytime I go to the store. I have a sore jaw from griting my teeth so much and sometimes I talk to Chad in a less then educated baby voice, using word like 'wittle' and 'yummy-wummy'. And to top it off, the movies that I have ordered on netflix this past week consist of Babys day Out, Baby Genius, Despicable me and Babys the documentary. Hello my name is kayla and Im a babyholic.

I guess this leads to my next topic of discussion, babies! Having babies! Starting a family with Chad! Its all so exciting to me so I knew I would really get into this chapter :) Chapter 5 is based around the sacred responsibilities of a mother and father. But I feel like chapter 4, which is about chastity in marriage and procreative powers, fits so well with the resposibility that lies in those powers and obligations. So Im going to combined some of those lessons and principles.

In marriage, we are building something grater than ourselves, it opens up a world or oportunity and obligation. I think obligation is the 'golden' word in these chapters and our discussion.

First lets talk babies. I think its so important to understand that our children are our heavenly fathers first, I know that know that my Heavenly Father has entrusted me with such an amazing power and responsibilty to help in the creation procees of the plan of salvation. With my husband that I am sealed to, Ive been given the sacred duty of procreation and all the responsibilities that come with it. However, with that divine obligation, comes the agency to mis use it. and so many do. there are abortions, children with two moms and two dads, babies born to single parents, or to parents that arnt married. This doent mean 'the baby was born wrong' or anything like that but our Father in heaven has designed the family to work together with a husband and wife at the head, the father to preside, protect and provide and the wife to nuture, teach and care for. with all the inbalances of same sex marraige, teenage pregnacies, single parneting, its not the way a child should be brought up in the Lord.

Disclaimer time: This is not me making rash political statements or judging anyone at ALL! I would hate to offend and its the last thing I intend to do. My comments and opinions are strictly based off of the proclamation, which to my knowlegde and testimony is directly from the Lord, guidance to raise a family in his only true church.

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over thier families in love and rightiousness and are responsible to provide the nessecities of life and protection for thier families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nuture of thier children"(proclamation)

In the chapter there is a quote that really stuck with me, David B. Haight said "Consider the enormous importance of marriage, it is rather astonishing that we dont make better preparations for success... to many people are inadequetly prepared for this lofty responsibility."

I completly agree, I dated Chad for a year and had been close friends with him for 3 years by the time we decided on marraige. I thought we had prepared and in many ways we did, we study scriptures together, we had built a strong foundation of trust, we had seen eachother in many different lights and I had felt completly prepared. But now, as we decided on when to have a child and where to live and where to work, I realize the responsibility of becomeing parents is soemthing that needs to be prepared for. Dont get me wrong, I can recognize and respect when family have kids right off the bat, lots of people do it and perhaps they are just as prepared and ready for the responsibility but im so glad I know that my husband and I are on the same page. We are strengthening our marrage and uniting as a couple so that we can be united in our decisions and our child can be raise by two loving parenst that understand thier responsibilities and give and example of a strongly unified husband and wife.

We have been given differences, that help to create who we are and seperate genders, male from female, and huband from wife. I think that a huge part of why we were given those differences is for the need to help one another it 'insure collaboration and unity in order to create shared and balanced power. Husbands are as depenant upon wives and wives are upon husbands. A phrase that I will use constantly is "united in a cause". I feel like this is what makes a happy famil, a happy marraige and a happy relationship with our savior. As we work together with one anothers goal in mind, our goals become the same and we achieve oneness. I honestly belive that as we work together towards a common goal, our relationships are strengthen, we will become more selfless, and we will achieve the goals together faster! I want that oneness, I know that thats what is going and does today, drive my family. knowing that we have a father in heaven that loves us and that wants us to return to him, and that we cant do it alone. Im so glad that I have found my husband who has the same goal and recognizes that he cant get there without me and that I cant get there without him, but most importantly, that we dont wanna be thier without eachother and our future family.

I cant wait to have kids . . but i totally can. I wanna bring my baby into a world where they can feel taught, loved and nutured by thier mother and protected, lead and povided for by thier father. I know that the dicision of when to start a family is one that will be made prayerfull by my husband and I together. Im so excited to learn more and prepare my home for another little Merrell!