God Plans. God Provides.
We took our eldest to dinner for a belated birthday meal. All 4 of our children are full grown. All these many years have done little to dull the memory of anticipating the arrival of our four, two by adoption and two home grown. The story of each child as he or she entered our family is unique but each story is marked by joy and thanksgiving as we watched the work of God.
My eldest son's birthday reminded me of the letter I intended to write to 2 of our children a couple of years ago. I was at a retreat on prayer. One of the workshops had us write down some of our prayer requests over the years. One of mine was that I would overcome my infertility. We were still childless after 7 years of marriage. After stating the prayer request I had over 30 years ago, I immediately started to write that the adoption of our two oldest was the answer to this prayer. It suddenly struck me that after we had our 2 adopted children I was still infertile. How could our 2 adopted children be the answer? My often unspoken prayer was that God would give us a child to love and raise in our home. He answered our prayers with not just one child but two .
When the day came that I found out I was pregnant, people who knew me rejoiced in my pregnancy. They must have wondered about the low key way I shared the news. All I knew was that I was already a mom. Being with child was not the next chapter in my story. It was a whole new story. The usual way of having a family was like a treasure that you can't find a way to use and it goes in the back of the closet. When you take it out at a later time, you examine it from all sides like you have never seen it before. Yes I was happy to be pregnant in time when the wonder of it all finally sunk in but phase 2 of our parenting was nothing I had prayed for. This was definitely God's idea.
God often amazes us with His way of family planning. I thought our family of 4 was just fine. We had what many people consider a perfect family, a boy and a girl. God had another plan. Instead of a girl born in Seoul, Korea and a son from Pusan He allowed us also to have a girl born in Salisbury, Md. and a son born in Lincoln, Ne.
Whether our children came first,second, third, or fourth we accepted them equally as gifts from our loving God given in His good timing. There is no physical attribute, common interest, or country of origin that causes one child to outrank another. I may have been surprised by my unexpected pregnancies but God was not. He also was not surprised when after my second c-section it was clear a third pregnancy was not to be. God has been in control of our entire lives, how we met, when we married, how long it took for our family to begin ,and the makeup of our family. We are wise to remember the wisdom of Proverbs 16:9. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
My eldest son's birthday reminded me of the letter I intended to write to 2 of our children a couple of years ago. I was at a retreat on prayer. One of the workshops had us write down some of our prayer requests over the years. One of mine was that I would overcome my infertility. We were still childless after 7 years of marriage. After stating the prayer request I had over 30 years ago, I immediately started to write that the adoption of our two oldest was the answer to this prayer. It suddenly struck me that after we had our 2 adopted children I was still infertile. How could our 2 adopted children be the answer? My often unspoken prayer was that God would give us a child to love and raise in our home. He answered our prayers with not just one child but two .
When the day came that I found out I was pregnant, people who knew me rejoiced in my pregnancy. They must have wondered about the low key way I shared the news. All I knew was that I was already a mom. Being with child was not the next chapter in my story. It was a whole new story. The usual way of having a family was like a treasure that you can't find a way to use and it goes in the back of the closet. When you take it out at a later time, you examine it from all sides like you have never seen it before. Yes I was happy to be pregnant in time when the wonder of it all finally sunk in but phase 2 of our parenting was nothing I had prayed for. This was definitely God's idea.
God often amazes us with His way of family planning. I thought our family of 4 was just fine. We had what many people consider a perfect family, a boy and a girl. God had another plan. Instead of a girl born in Seoul, Korea and a son from Pusan He allowed us also to have a girl born in Salisbury, Md. and a son born in Lincoln, Ne.
Whether our children came first,second, third, or fourth we accepted them equally as gifts from our loving God given in His good timing. There is no physical attribute, common interest, or country of origin that causes one child to outrank another. I may have been surprised by my unexpected pregnancies but God was not. He also was not surprised when after my second c-section it was clear a third pregnancy was not to be. God has been in control of our entire lives, how we met, when we married, how long it took for our family to begin ,and the makeup of our family. We are wise to remember the wisdom of Proverbs 16:9. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
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