Boy, it would be nice to find some friends who are in a similar situation as Scott and myself. Most of our friends here are un-married, or married with no children. Don't get me wrong, I adore my friends, can't live without them, but the people we know don't really share the same values and spiritual ideals that we hold dear in our hearts. Not that we need friends that are exactly like us, but we really have no friends (nearby anyway) that are like us. It would be nice to find some people who are Christian, who are married and have children (preferably in our age group). Our friends from church, though recently married, are still not quite what we are looking for. They are the best people on the planet, but mostly pretty young (21-25). Not that they're that young really, but from my perspective, I feel like the "adult" around them, and that's not how I want to feel. Our other friends are either not married, not Christian, have no children or don't want any. It's hard to talk about being a parent with people who really don't have the desire. And this is important to us. Who do we turn to when we have troubles, fears, doubts regarding parenthood? We have no peers in our situation. It so true that when you have children, people tend to stop calling you. At first it's "Well, I didn't want to bug you." But after a while of us telling people that we would like to hang out, just let us know when you're available and hearing nothing back gets to be very discouraging. I have been asked often by friends who don't really want children why I do. It's like this in a nutshell: I can do all the things that people say you can't really do once you have children. I can travel, I can take classes, I can work, I can buy "stuff". Having children may delay these things, but it's not impossible to live that type of lifestyle. However, I can never experience the love of a child or the love I'll feel as a mother without a child. I'll never experience any of the wonderful things that a child would bring to my life without having a child. There is nothing like it on the planet and I just couldn't conceive of living my life without this beautiful opportunity. I feel so incredibly blessed by this miracle and to miss out on it on purpose just seems like I would be missing out on something huge. This may be selfish...so be it. I know that others feel completely fine about not having children...that's great! I think it's worse to have children brought up by people who never wanted this opportunity. I'm not going to go into an abortion debate...I know where I stand on the issue. But I feel sad that Scott and I are alone in this, and others are just spectators. Well, some others are spectators...others have completely fled the scene. It would just be nice if people weren't afraid of us. I guess it's the same for other folks...we have trouble relating to people not in our situation and vice versa. I just long for some real companionship aside from my marriage, that I don't have to get from a long distance phone call.