I'd like to "officially" announce that my family and I are expecting baby #11 in mid-June, and are so excited for this added blessing!But I think I need to explain more about why we are welcoming an eleventh child into our family.
When I first realized I was pregnant, I am ashamed to say that I was sullen and angry. I had been so sure that we were "done"-- that ten children were quite enough for me. In fact, a few months after our last baby was born, I was encouraging my husband to get a vasectomy, and he was seriously considering it. But before we went forward with something so permanent, we decided to talk to our bishop about it. I was sure he would tell us that we had done more than "our fair share," and that "of course," a vasectomy after ten children was quite a reasonable thing to do. I thank the heavens above that our good bishop advised us to not do anything permanent, and that if our family was complete, that we would be "done," and had nothing to worry about. He did not advocate against the use of birth control, but my biggest worry was being pregnant again-- not about raising another baby. And birth control pills simulate the pregnancy hormones, and hence, the emotions, that I wanted to avoid. We decided to prevent pregnancy in other ways and left things where they were. But I was certain that God would not send us another child. I was done!
Fast forward to this past October when I suspected I was expecting. I threw my little tantrums, asked God "why me?" and generally acted like a big grouch. But, luckily, the Lord did not give up on me. Gradually, He softened my heart, and reminded me in a thousand ways what a great gift He was giving me. I was reminded of how much I love each and every one of my children, and I looked at my family with renewed vision and appreciation.
What a merciful, trusting, and loving Father in Heaven we all have to give us these, His precious children to raise and nurture! And how these spirits deserve to have homes where they will be welcomed and loved with open arms and grateful hearts.
EVERY baby is a blessing and a gift. What kind of ungrateful people are we who would reject the blessings of God that He wants to bestow upon us? "Thanks, but no thanks"? Accepting the blessings the Lord has in store for us is another way of showing our love and gratitude to Him.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is by an amazing woman who acknowledged and recognized children for what they are: gifts from a loving Heavenly Father. She said,
"How can you have too many children?
That's like saying there are too many flowers"
~ Mother Teresa
Fellow mothers, I wish you all the flowers in your gardens that the Lord wishes to bless you with, whether your garden is small or large, homegrown, or adopted. :-) And may God bless you in your mothering efforts!!!
OOOOOOOOO.......I am gonna admit that I am a little jealous!!!!! I seriously contemplated more babies.....but my husband says the last two were too scary...and well.....I felt it in church on Sunday...as I looked down the row.....I was done. My family was complete....so I am little sad that I am done with the baby stage...well at least the pregnancy part, but so excited and respectful of you!!! Keep on keeping on...your amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this! I am so happy for you. Just be as happy as you can during the pregnancy. It is a special time.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Mrs. White
Thank you for sharing this. Congratulations! I read with amazment at all you do. It inspires me to do more with my 4.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. The Lord needs more good homes for His little ones. So He must trust you a lot! Good luck on the pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I had a wave of emotions similar to yours when we thought we were {all done} & then discovered we were expecting again {#7}.
I too went from feeling like I needed to question Heavenly Father to then accepting the gift that it was.
Thanks for sharing. I especially appreciate the quote from Mother Theresa...so inspiring!
Oh, and btw...I stumbled across your blog on Celeste Bachelor's blog: Cinder Mountain Scholars.
Warmly,
~DeAyn
Congratulations! I had a similar experience with my #7. I was finally able to grasp the concept that children were blessings and that having and raising them was the absolute best use of my time on earth. I was recently blessed with another one, #8. Pure joy!!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had more children...so congratulations! You are a great mom!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!!! I'm so happy for you and your family, but a little jealous at the same time ;)
ReplyDeleteYou are just awesome and I love you! I'm so happy that you are pregnant. When you announced on Facebook I was so excited. I always get sad when people say they are done- and I have been one of those in the past.
ReplyDeleteI know what you were feeling when you were angry. With my seventh I felt that way. I wasn't well enough {I thought} for a pregnancy and I didn't want to be pregnant- yet. I was sad and anxious, but thankfully I realize quickly what a blessing this was. I love our little 3 year old- she is amazing! Now here I am pregnant with #8 and happy as can be. Love hearing about these new babies coming into the world!
Congratulations, Rachel!
ReplyDeleteWe're expecting #6 any day now.
I loved reading this. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I will definitely be back.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, It's been so long since I stopped by but I'm going to start doing it regularly again. You have always been an inspiration to me. I have run into 'fertility' issues over the last few years and so all my big plans for a large family have kinda fallen flat at the moment. (I have 5) So I started losing weight recently with the hope of getting my system right again so that I could hopefully be blessed again. Then just this morning I was thinking to myself...I hope I get to lose enough weight before Heavenly Father blesses me again. I couldn't believe it - 1 minute I'm losing weight in the hopes of having another baby and next minute I'm selfishly hoping it doesn't happen too soon! ARGH!!! Get behind me satan! Babies are God's treasured gifts aren't they! And I know God's will and timing is perfect, He's always got it covered. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo...CONGRATULATIONS...I truly am excited for you and I DO know that this is the Lord's will for you because He knows that you can do it and do it well! Please keep us updated on how the pregnancy progresses and how you're coping.
Lots of love, an old friend from LDFR (who hasn't been there for a long time),
Shanny in Australia.
This is disgusting!!
ReplyDeleteHaven't you ever heard of the word "overpopulation"? If people keep doing what you're doing, there will not be enough food or water to keep your fat children alive.
Large families used to be acceptable, when the chilren would work on the farms. Now there is absolutely no 'need' for any children at all, but of course people should have the right to have one or 2, if they really want. This planet cannot support as many humans as there are, and by constantly pumping out more offspring, you are not helping the problem at all.
If you REALLY loved and cared about children, you would adopt one.
To me, you're just selfish. you obviously don't care about the environment or the thousands of children growing up without parents.
asdf:
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't catch the logic as to how having more children makes me "selfish." Because having and raising so many children is easy? If you think so, then you don't have any children. ;-)
I have a strong personal belief that there are spirits in heaven waiting to come to earth to loving families. AND, I also believe that the world NEEDS more loving, caring, contributing people who care about children, homes, and families. I have a firm conviction that it is in the homes, and NOT the legislative halls, that the world's problems will be solved. And that takes a FAMILY.
People who don't value children are the real selfish ones, to my mind. And luckily, by not having children to pass along their ideals, they are making themselves extinct.
I'm only now reading this.RK, I so admire your willingness to bring children into the world, a world that so needs children, not only for reasons of joy but reasons of pragmatism.
ReplyDeleteSome selfish, misguided people condemn the having of children, but what they don't realize is that it's the kids being born now who will support them in their own age.
Lucky for them, we're nice people, and the world isn't fair, and our kids will still take care of them in their dotage, even if they're the same ignorant people who criticized their existance. It's a pity those critics don't actually know anything about real demographics or environmental impact, because if they did, they'd be congratulating you too.
Whoever it is who'll make their appearance soon, that is some lucky spirit, getting to be sent to you family. And I admit I've got some holy envy goin' on--11 kids! WOW! *happy sigh* I will be overjoyed to get to 8 kids, at this point. Much loves!
First off~ GOOD FOR YOU!!! Congratulations!!
ReplyDeleteI am a mother of 3 kids, but I have always wanted MORE. When we married we talked about a family of 5 at least, because we both are from families of 5. I always felt that we were supposed to have a house full of boogers running around. It has always taken me awhile to get pregnant. I also have some kidney issues that make pregnancy difficult, and end up having c-sections with my first 2 boys born prematurely. I envy you and your full house!! I am hoping the Lord has at least one more up there for our house hold and we are thinking about starting to look into adoption. Be proud of your family!!
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this again on my blog. It's a good reminder that God's plans can surprise us!
Wonderful! I love that quote by Mother Teresa. My friend once shared something her father-in-law said, "If you knew that someone was going to keep dropping gold coins from heaven as long as you kept your hand open, why would you ever close your hand?"
ReplyDeleteI think that once we get a glimpse of the eternal nature of things, and of all the spirits who are waiting, it changes our souls in a powerful way.