Every Thursday for three years my mom has watched my children at her house. The routine we have is simple and consistent, with my wife Erin dropping them off in the morning, and me picking them up in the afternoon. So on Thursday July 9th, 2009, I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary when I drove from work to my mom's house to pick them up. It seemed just like every other Thursday we've experienced the past three years.

I've been a Christian for almost ten years now and during that span I have experienced many different aspects of God's love. What drew me to Jesus 10 years ago was the mystery, the questions and the paradoxes. I was fed up with formulas and scripted answers, and was struck by the awe and wonder of what I was discovering in Jesus. What I believe now, more than I did at the beginning, is that Jesus doesn't invite me to have all the answers, he just asks me to trust him and to journey with him, questions and all.

One question that I've been asking to God for years is why my older sister has been unable to get pregnant and have children of her own. For seven years she and her husband journeyed through doctors visits, infertility treatments, the birth of numerous children around them (including my two sons), the news that it was improbable they would ever have children naturally, the beginning of an international adoption process and the hurtful stigma our culture places on women unable (or unwilling) to have children.

I know that God doesn't answer every prayer and I'm okay with that. I know the world and God is much more complicated than I can wrap my head around. At the same time I, and others, were hoping and praying and wishing deeply that God might provide the miracle we all wanted for her. Over the years there was numerous times when my sister and I would discuss how she was doing and what she was feeling at that moment. At times our conversations were filled with tears and at other times filled with smiles and a sense of hopefulness that denied reality. I heard her express frustration, anger and sadness. I also heard her express trust, faithfulness and strength as she journeyed through it all.

I was late, that is sort of all I remember as I walked into my mom's house. I was singularly focused on grabbing my boys and all their stuff, throwing them in the car and getting them home for their naps. My two beautiful boys greeted me from my mom's dining table, full of unopened mail, fake flowers, kids toys and remnants of their lunch. My oldest son, Ezra, happily greeted me by showing off his dessert, a handful of bright white and green M&M's. My youngest, Koen, sat in his chair with a huge smile barely visible behind his mac and cheese face. As I began packing up all their stuff, my sister burst through the front door with all the exuberance that usually follows her. She came storming right to me, stopped just short of me, grabbed my hands, placed them on her stomach and said the three words that still ring in my head today, "I am pregnant!".

This decade has been full of a lot of things for me. At the beginning of the decade I was just graduating from college. I celebrate the end of this decade with a beautiful wife and two sons. And in between then and now, grateful for numerous joy filled and memorable experiences. But what will mark this decade for me is not all that I have experienced already, but what I am about to experience three short months into this new decade. On that day, sometime in March, I will be greeting my niece into this world. With each moment between now and then filled with awe, disbelief and thankfulness for the miracle baby that grows inside my sister.