Teal Broox Warren

Teal Broox Warren, you caught us off guard. We never saw you coming. We thought we had closed a door, a chapter in our lives, and then there you were banging on a door that was supposed to be locked up with the key thrown away. If I am completely honest with myself, it took me a hot minute … or maybe a cold long minute to get used to the idea of you! There were tears involved, tears of fear, dread, and maybe a touch of joy. I felt like Nick Saban taking a COVID test over and over again as he was trying to prove he didn’t have COVID so he could coach the Alabama Auburn game despite a string of multiple positive test. In the end, I fell flat, I couldn’t negotiate my way out of those two little blue lines. The Type-A in me didn’t like to be caught off guard or stuck in the middle of a plan that I didn’t intentionally set in motion, but there I was.

When I envisioned life with four kids, all I could see were things that I didn’t plan: sleepless nights, longer waits for a table at a restaurant, body changes that I didn’t want to be made, pregnancy discomfort … extreme discomfort, an extra mouth that could potentially catch a stomach bug, a ski trip that I couldn’t ski on, an occasional glass of wine that I’d have to give up for almost a year. All I could see were the roadblocks in life.

What I didn’t envision was the sheer joy you’d bring to your big sisters, the FaceTime squeals annoucing you were a little brother, newborn snuggles that I didn’t know I missed, a somewhat healthy pregnancy that allowed me to truly workout until the day before you were born, a chill baby … that I PRAY stays chill, the adventures of raising a boy, an extra giggle to add to our laughter. You are exactly what we didn’t know we needed and were missing out on. Welcome to the family Teal.