It’s been a very busy time in our part of the world. I’m enjoying teaching college part-time, but I’m covering content that I’ve never taught before, so it’s requiring a lot of preparation–which is hard to do with a four-year-old and a nineteen-month-old at home! Coffee shops are my friend.
The future is still hard to discern, but a few things have come sharply into focus recently. We have found out that we will be the parents of a new baby late next spring. Now, our current low-income, homeless state isn’t one in which we expected to carry on with the family-increasing business. In fact, we had thought that we had closed up shop, and we sold all of our infant things (car seat, changing table, toys, clothes) to a poor family for $20 when we moved last May. Oops! And I’ll go ahead and tear up the Ph.D. applications sitting on the table. Maybe someday, but now we don’t have the luxury of letting me go much longer without a job. The longer I stay out of ministry, the less interest I have in going back into it, so I need to find something more lucrative than college adjunct (which is almost anything, really), and that isn’t ministry but can be done without too much additional training. In the spring I’ll do alternative teaching certification through the regional educational service center and see if I can find a public school job. I always considered that a possibility, and from what I hear there are a lot of elementary principals who would like more men on staff. I certainly don’t mind working with the little ones–I have a fair amount of first-hand experience now. But high school’s fine, too. Just not, dear Lord, middle school. My wife loves 11 and 12 year olds, but I’d much rather have the ones who are definitely little or definitely teens. Someone else can help them navigate the initial shifts of early puberty. I’ve got my hands full managing my own personal transitions right now.
Speaking of which, I’m just delighted about this upcoming kiddo. I really always wanted three, but we had decided that stopping at two was the responsible choice given all that’s gone on (and the fact that I’ll be 39 next year!) But in spite of being conscientious about taking precautions, I was elated the moment we discovered that the barriers had been breached. I assume the new baby will be an excellent swimmer. It’s nice to have to do the irresponsible thing for a change. I imagine that we’ll find a way to continue providing food and shelter for the kids.
When we found out that baby number two was going to be a boy, I was disappointed. I thought I didn’t care either way, but I realized that I was enjoying my daughter so much it was hard not to want another little girl. Now that I have both a boy and a girl who constantly delight me, I think I really, genuinely don’t care what number three is. (Except we do have a girl’s name we really like that has gone unused….)
And step by step, into the future we go, the five of us.
Kirk Cowell 