Gender neutral?

"My caution is that in our rush to defend equality, we assume sameness instead of equally valuable differences" (John Piper).

Being raised by a strong, independent, and temporarily single mother gave be a strong sense of self. I'm thankful that I was taught equality, self-sufficiency and respect for cultural differences, but I may have missed the value in gender differences.

As a mom of three, potentially four, boys, I see the world with new eyes. Many women today who are desiring respect in place of serving as visual trophies, actually dress in such provocative ways as to actually assume the symbol they are trying to escape. We are believing a lie that altering our external appearance will gain us greater external beauty; ultimately it attracts the wrong kind of attention, taking away from our internal beauty.
Moreover, differences in temperament shouldn't be ignored or eradicated because it negates a potential difference in relational intuition or gifted nourishment.

There's much to be said about the world assuming gender neutrality (just ask my five-year old who questioned which bathroom was for boys the other day in a public neutral restroom area), but I agree with Piper, seeking sameness takes away from God-given, beautifully equal differences.
While we have chosen not to find out the gender of our fourth baby, I think we sort of hope for a boy at this point.
One of my favorite differences between myself and my boys is their innate ability to let things go immediately. I never realized how petty and immature I could be until I saw my own anger against my young sons, who can easily regain joy after a prolonged frustrating interaction. Instead of rejoicing that they don't hold grudges, forget the past, and move forward, I was actually a little hurt that they weren't more upset about upsetting me. What kind of example is that? Well, I believe it's a natural gift turned sour for women.
We are blessed when we have minds to recall all our children's allergies, academic achievements, and animated experiences despite our lack of sleep. Yet this gift is misused when we recall every poor choice, frequent disturbance, or selfish harm that our husbands or sons have inflicted on us. They are the ones gifted when it comes to forgiveness.
Regardless of our baby's gender, I hope he or she knows who God designed him or her to be, not the world. Our children and ourselves are beautifully unique, beautifully created, beautifully formed in differences that are perfectly beautiful.

Each of these boys is so different, but they all love to eat that's their natural bond (even their dad will eat toddler snacks with them!)

Would love another boy, but sweet Kyra gave me a few pink things before I had Levi just in case I ever had a girl. So we are set...ready or not, baby will be here in two months or less!