“Are these ALL yours?”  “Don’t you know what a TV is?” Why would you have another baby?  —-you’ve already got the perfect family…a boy, a girl, a golden retriever and a station wagon!”  “So, are you gonna have any more?”  “Don’t you know what birth control is?”  “Are you Catholic?”  “Are you going for your own baseball team?”

These are some of the many nosey or dare I say even rude questions my husband and I heard time and time again. It was awkward, being put on the spot like this. It took us by surprise at first, but as time went on, we got used to the questions….being treated as if we were either crazy or ignorant.  After our fifth child was born, we went from being considered strange to overnight super heroes.  How should we respond?  Over time, we learned it was best not to say too much.  Sometimes my husband used the comeback line: “Which one do you think we should get rid of?”

We firmly believe what the Bible says about children in  Psalm 127:3  “Children are a gift from the Lord;  they are a reward from him.”    After our first child was born, we wondered if we would have been blessed with other children if we had not tried to prevent an earlier pregnancy.  A Full Quiver by Rick Hess is a book that strongly influenced us enough to re-evaluate our position on family planning.  After much thinking and praying, we decided to leave the number and spacing of children to God.  That meant taking a leap of faith and letting go of the controls.  It brought some fearful moments and  stretched us beyond what we thought possible. It’s a journey I never could have imagined yet would not trade for anything.

All of our children are between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years apart.  Our three sons in the middle are about 18 months apart from each other consecutively. For a period of time it felt like we had a set of twins with another son not much older! Those were busy, exhausting and challenging days. They were also days filled with adventure and lots of learning experiences, but most of all—- LOVE.