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“I’d have like 12 kids if I could!” I told my new friend. “But who does that nowadays? I mean, besides the Duggars? We’re not them. We kinda don’t fit that mold, ya know?”
My friend quietly listened to me as we walked through her house. There was something special about her. I felt so energized around her and her family. They were…different somehow. She led me to a bookcase and handed me a small stack of magazines by Above Rubies. She explained that they had a ministry and sent out these free magazines every so often. She assured me they were right up my ally. I gratefully accepted the magazines and when I started reading them I couldn’t put them down. I was so excited. At the time I had 2 little boys, and my husband wasn’t interested in having anymore children too soon. But I had something in my heart. I loved my little boys. I was comfortable with boys. I had grown up with 3 brothers and assumed it would be my lot to have boys too. Yet something in me stirred. I just knew I was supposed to have a girl too. Could it happen? Would God be so good to me?
Little did I know that what was stirring in my heart would literally tear my marriage apart. Fear of the future mixed with frustration and pridefulness are powerful things. But thank God, His Grace is more. And that’s the meaning of the name my husband gave our first little girl. Oh, she was so beautiful to me. Still is of course. Actually, she’s much more beautiful now. A desire fulfilled is a Tree of Life.
Our Marriage today is stronger and closer than it has ever been. And as I write this update I’m currently pregnant with my 4th little girl, (our 7th child). My husband just thanked me yesterday for convincing him to have more children. He says he can’t imagine life without even one of them.
Proverbs 13:12 “Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick: but when the desire cometh; it is a tree of life.
