Life Update 2: Twins and the USA

David Russell Mosley

Festival of King Edmund

20 November 2013

On the Edge of Elfland

Beeston, Nottinghamshire

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, it is has been an interesting week. Last Thursday, Lauren and I went in for our 12 week scan. We were still a little nervous. For us, this scan was going to make the pregnancy real for both of us. Lauren has had the usual symptoms of pregnancy, but isn’t really showing yet; since the changes aren’t happening to me, I really don’t get to experience the pregnancy. So this scan was going to make it all real and settle any fears we might have had.

We go into the Queen’s Medical Centre, wait, get called into the room and get settled. The technician puts the ultrasound wand on Lauren’s stomach and nonchalantly announces, ‘You’re having twins.’ Lauren and I both assume he’s joking. He then proceeds to say, ‘I love shocking people,’ but not in a way that makes us think he’s serious. It isn’t until he says we’re going to label this one Twin A that it finally dawns on us; this isn’t a joke. We’ve been in a state of shock and joy ever since.

We’ve since found out that there is some history for twins on Lauren’s side of the family. Even so, its so remote and only one cousin has had them, with no guarantee that it came from the Peterson side of the family, that we had no notion, no inkling that this could happen to us.

Having twins means a lot of changes are coming our way. For starters, it means having to get two of everything instead of just enough for one baby. It also means our original plans of not finding out the gender have gone out the window. In Lauren’s words, ‘I need to be as prepared as I can be.’ There is another change, however, that the twins aren’t causing, but helping to facilitate.

Ever since Lauren and I made the decision to remain in England and pursue ordination in the Church of England we have felt unsettled. We thought we’d feel content. We expected hardships and doubts, but not to the extent we were having them. We had no time, no breathing room to figure things out. It all needed to happen so fast, too fast. Since finding out we’re having twins, our priorities have needed to change. This means, for the time being, we’re putting a pause on the ordination process.

In other words, after I submit my PhD in the Fall of next year we will be coming home to the USA. We aren’t sure what that’s going to look like yet. We’ll want to spend time with family; I’ll need to spend time preparing for my Viva (the defence of my thesis back in the UK), but other than that things are up in the air. We’re going to be very sad to leave England. We have and do love living here. Nevertheless, we’re looking forward to coming home and spending time with friends and family, sharing the gift of our twins with everyone we can. In terms of ordination in the CoE, I’ll be keeping in touch with our DDO and if God has called to ordination in England, then he’ll bring us back. For now, we’re just going to trust in him, thank him for our twins, and pray that I get my thesis written. And on that note, I’ve got some reading and writing to do.

Sincerely yours,

David Russell Mosley

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