A Little About Our Bunch

It's been awhile since we've done a faith and family blog post, so I thought I'd share a little about our beliefs on faith and family.

I would not consider us to be a part of the "Quiverfull" movement in that we don't expect everyone to have a ton of kids.  But, here's our stance on kids and how it works for our family:

First of all, we believe children are a great gift from God.  Each child is created in His image and therefore, a direct work of our loving Creator. (Psalm 127:3-5)

We have always believed that God created marriage for us to have children and grow a legacy grounded in God's glory.  It's about us putting our selfish desires aside and seeking out what God wants for our marriage and our life.  We've been perfectly content, ecstatic even, in having children only two years after being married.  In fact, I've told Mark that if I had a do-over, we would have allowed God to work in our lives to have children earlier than later.  But, yet, God is more Sovereign than me and knew when I needed to have these babies.

After each pregnancy...well, when we got up to four kids for sure, we started to pray.  I think I've mentioned a time or two that I really thought we'd have four children and then adopt from there on out.  Filling our home with laughter and love from our own gene pool and then from others.  After Josiah (#4 if you're trying to keep count), we began to pray both together and separately, and realized that while we still wanted to adopt, we didn't see where God was telling us to quit having children and allow a doctor to stop us from having kids.  Lo, and behold, Ceili Rain was born about nine months later.

After Ceili Rain, we once again, took to praying and seeking out what God's will was for our family and our lives.  It's not easy, having five kids six and under.  Of course, a mom of one would say it's pretty difficult and I totally agree with her.  For all of us, sinners, it's hard raising sinners for the glory of God while trying to bring glory to Him ourselves.

Back on to my other tangent now:  So, we sought out God's will.  We still did not feel a peace about surgically stopping our procreation abilities (that's some fancy words for me huh).

One day, Mark looked at me while I was holding Ceili Rain and said, "Let's have another one...well, I mean, let's let God decide if we'll have another baby."  I knew this was what God had laid on my heart as well.

And so, about a month later, we found out baby #6 (well, #7, counting our little one in heaven) is on the way!
And now, let the negative comments, snide remarks, and goofy laughs begin!!  At least you now know why we have so many of these kids.  Our house is about to truly become a bunch of Characters!  Here we go on our adventure with our seventh pregnancy...can you just feel the anticipation!  And guess who God has allowed me the privilege of sharing this pregnancy journey with???

My dear sweet sister in law, who is on her sixth pregnancy but #7 baby (remember my two adorable twin nephews...not that all my nephews and nieces aren't adorable, I'm just saying they are the latest adorable ones).

And here are the facts:  I'm not as far along as I thought and based on the ultrasound on Monday, I am about 6 1/2 weeks along.  I'll go back in a few weeks for another ultrasound.  This puts me due July 2010.  We're back on track (for now) having our summer and winter babies.