“To bear and raise godly children is to leave a legacy for future generations.
The legacy of homes, land, and wealth is great, but these can be destroyed and vanish away.
The legacy of children will last through the generations.
To bear children is to lay up treasure in Heaven.
God is not only interested in populating earth, but in populating eternity.
Parenthood has eternal rewards. It is not something that fades away.
It lasts into the generations to come and also eternity.
We need to guard ourselves from the trends of our day that lure our attention to ‘things’
that will not last and pull us away from the tasks that are lasting, such as raising children.”
-Nancy Campbell
Standing in the foyer of our church a few Sundays ago, I was having a light hearted conversation with one of my friends, who also happens to be expecting her third baby. What a delight to see her little family growing and her joy of motherhood increasing with every new week of her pregnancy. Coming up to the two of us, our cheerful pastor’s wife was easily added to the conversation.
“I was wondering — would be it be okay to throw a baby shower for you?” she asked with a gentle smile.
Of course, my eyes went to my friend’s direction. Naturally, I thought she was referring to my younger friend – who is only on her third pregnancy – surely, the shower arrangements were for her little one to come. The thought of a baby shower for our own little one never even crossed my mind. When I found out she was referring to both of us expectant mothers, tears sprang into my eyes.
“A shower? For me and the baby?” I questioned, shocked and humbled, as it has been years and years since someone has celebrated the arrival of our babies in the form of a baby shower.
“Oh yes! It is for both of you! All babies are a blessing in this church! We love babies! Every baby should be celebrated, no matter what number they are!” the lovely pastor’s wife explained.
With absolute joy and utter amazement, I retold the story to my husband on the car ride home.
A baby shower for us, he asked? Surely not. After all, we have had ‘so many babies.’ Indeed, I told him – we were included in the baby shower! We were both so blessed – for so many reasons. No, this baby does not NEED anything but the love (and diapers!) and home life we will give to him and her when they are born.
However, it is a immense blessing to be shown what the Bible says in this practical way: Children are a blessing, no matter if they are the first born baby or the ninth or even the 12th baby of the family born! My heart was filled with gratitude at the words of our pastor’s wife – all children SHOULD be celebrated – especially inside the family of God. I was most excited for our children – the girls, mostly – as they have not attended many baby showers in their lifetime and also adore and love babies. They are so excited to attend their own sibling’s baby shower. What fun! What a beautiful way to show to our children that they — and all babies – are wanted, special and sent from God.
Baby #9?! Wow.
This is usual the reaction from most when they ask how many children we have.
{Really, yes, that is a large family but we do know other families with more children than we have!}
Indeed. We never imagined having nine children, but now we can imagine have 10 or even more!
In some ways, I feel more blessed with each pregnancy. In no way do I take this new little baby-to-come for granted – and it’s certainly not a feeling of, “Oh dear, there’s another one on the way!” to me at all.
In fact, with each pregnancy and with the birth of each new child, the responsibility and the God-given challenge of parenting is awakened and renewed.
It is a truly an honour and a rich blessing to be carrying baby #9 …and I know my heart grows with more love with the arrival of each little one into our family.
At 30 weeks, things have gone very smoothly so far. Despite the regular aches and pains of a pregnancy (not to mention multiple pregnancies and getting older!), I have nothing to complain about. Yes, I am sore – yes, my legs hurt, yes, my muscles are stretching and yes, I go to bed early – but I know this is part of the pregnancy journey.
As I flipped our kitchen calendar from January to February this past weekend, I did, however, have a sudden panicky feeling of all that needs to be done before the baby arrives …. more school work needs to be finished, areas of the house cleaned that need organizing or painting, closets, drawers that need cleaning out, a two year old that needs to move into his big boy bed… oh, and where are those cloth diapers?
Are we ready for a new one? Hardly. We will probably always need to do something around here – this is true life and every day, there are new challenges and adventures for our family. But I love this life – this large family living – and– with God’s glorious grace — we will enter a new chapter with joy and strength.
We are planning a home birth with our midwife again – Lord willing – but again, every pregnancy is different and I know the outcome is all in God’s hands. No, we did not find out the gender and will let it all be a nice surprise on the final day. Really, this update is rather short because things are going well!
So thankful for this little one to come!
P.S. If you have any name suggestions … please send them our way!
by Gigi
20 comments