Children.

Yubo and I have talked often about children, even before we got engaged. I'm just one of those people that likes to be as prepared as possible, and Yubo is kind enough to indulge me in these "prep" conversations.

I was happy to find that he, like me, only wants 2 children. I don't think either of us leans any particular way about sons or daughters, which is cool. We have two girl names, but are still thinking of potential boy names (suggestions, anyone?).

We don't plan to start trying to get pregnant until I'm just about done with school, which will hopefully be by next spring or fall. But the topic of children and parenting comes up often.

With both of our best friends' wives pregnant and due in the next week (yikes!), my mind comes to children probably more often than it really needs to right now. Most of the time I ask Yubo about how he would handle a certain situation if it were to come up. So the discussions have been focused on figuring out our potential parenting styles and how we can create a positive and disciplined home for our children. I hear nightly the absolute disrespect our upstairs neighbor receives from her college-aged son and it makes me paranoid.* Our biggest challenge will be showing our children how to deal with conflict in a healthy way, which neither of us grew up with.

We're also concerned about how to share God's love with our children. With Yubo coming from a Christian home and my growing up very much in the secular world, we have different views on what might be the best approach. For example, Yubo would really like to put our children in a Christian private school if we can afford it. I would actually prefer a regular public school. We both see the pros and cons for both, and of course it would depend on where we are and what is available by the time they have to go to school.

I think it's really a great thing that we have pretty different backgrounds and experiences to draw from and bring together to help make our decisions. And I'm glad that he's ok with talking about things so early.

*A little rant to get this out of my system:
I was restless last night. Went to bed around 1:00a. Between an overactive mind and random hot flashes, I didn't really get to try to settle down until 4am. That's when the yelling began.... again. This wasn't the first time I've had to lie through their raised voices. As I mentioned above, it's just about a nightly occurrence. But this time it was loud enough for me to actually make out some things said. And it proceeded for 2 hours. So I did not get to try to sleep until 6am. It bothered me more to be able to make out sentences. And in those 2hrs, all I heard was the son's voice. "What is wrong with you?" and similar questions bellowed at her. Something about "I feel like I deserve that." Oh, that sense of entitlement. What irritated me the most was hearing him yell, "I love God. I love Jesus," and in the next minute, screaming, "F--- you, mom." I know they are a broken family, and that could contribute to a good deal of it, but it was a little disgusting to listen to.