There were misty eyes around the table for the second time
this year; only this time they were from sheer delight and disbelief that
something this good could come to our
family. And then there was dancing past
bedtimes and “what are we going to name it?!” and “we’re gonna have a baby,
we’re gonna have a baby!” as they bounced on beds. Their
one disappointment has been that it isn’t twins.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17
All this bursting joy that God, in His sovereign grace and
kindness, would bless us with such a gift. We are all in wonder. As Dave says, #7 is kind of like bungee jumping—terrifying
and exhilarating all at the same time. And to the question, “weren’t you done having kids?” the answer is “Yes, we thought we were done after #4, but God keeps
giving us these beautiful bonus babies, truly the reward He says they are.
 |
| Sobering to think who we would have missed out on...! |
"Woe
to the one who quarrels with his Maker-- An earthenware vessel among the
vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the
thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'? Isaiah 45:9
This little plum-sized person is already filling our home
with hope and excitement, and we are eager to see what tremendous plans God has
for him (or her, but there are many in this home rooting for a “him”.)
Meggy has already called dibs on the baby, and our greatest
“problem” will most likely be trying to get through the crowd of siblings to
actually hold our own child. We are so
thankful that God does have very specific things to say about children. They are not, as the world will so quickly
tell us, a burden—they are a blessing and God uses them each day to sand down our
sharper edges that still need smoothing, and build our faith in new ways.
Stepping Heavenward, the diary of a woman from age 16
to the end of her life, has been one of my long-time favorite books. In the midst of her childbearing years, with
another baby on the way, a well-meaning friend says how sad she is to hear that
she is having another child…
“She says I shall now have one mouth the more
to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious
days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing.
Well! This is one side of the
story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to
kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my
nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is
worth all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see
less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I
minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure
for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you
are welcome to your mother's heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her
health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how
truly, how wondrously blest!”
--Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward
Praising God, from whom all
blessings flow!
