another boy?

    This weekend Ron took us all out to a camping area--we played in the lake, canoed, fished, rode bikes, hit baseballs, and ate only what we could cook over a fire.  It was pure delight.
     Relaxing by the lake, Ron and I had our routine conversation about whether we should have another child--after all, little Annie would probably do well to have a play mate!  A year of challenge for us (pregnancy is just so hard) contrasted to another wonderful littler person!
     But the odds are against it for now.  Hard really means "too hard" for the time being--the uncharitable kind of hard.
     We laughed, though, at the thought of another girl.  What if we had 5 girls plus Jake!
     Then it hit me, clear as day.  I realized why we have never had another boy.  The saint that has impacted me the most, perhaps in my whole life, was Alphonsus di Liguori.  I'll have to explain his one quote that changed my life another time.  But yes, he was life changing for me.  This weekend, it all became clear: we keep having girls so that I don't have to name our next child Alphonsus!