Eight is ...Enough?

You know my husband and I have always tried our utter best to find God's will in all the decisions of our life together. That should go without saying for all followers of Christ, but at times it seems that society dictates a lot of our decision making processes, even within the framework of the church. One of these questions is about exactly how many children is enough. I've heard it said that all families should have a quiver full, and that is at least 3. I don't know about you but if I was going into battle, I'd probably stock up on more ammunition than that. Then there are those who believe that we should only have as many children as we can care for. But that's blown out the window, when you realize that most people in their childbearing years are still struggling to find their way financially. For Josh and I it didn't ever matter how well off we were getting, when a baby came we would always find ourselves hopelessly broke. To the point of feeling like the hospital parking lot was the impound, when it came to paying for the parking that had accrued while we were in the hospital.

We decided not to make a decision about how many we were going to have. Over our baby making journey we've found varying responses to our fruitfulness. Babies 1, 2, and 3 came to us with little problem or major response from others. Its about when we hit number four that it all started. I remember being afraid to tell my mom. Not that she had ever acted anything other than completely overjoyed at our announcements, but for some reason I was embarrassed. At the time we were serving as missionaries in the Dominican Republic and staying with a family that had five children. The mother told me that she had experienced the same thing with number four and five. It made me feel a little better to know I wasn't the only one, and when I called my mom, she just laughed at me. Her joy was infectious. With five and six we learned to just drive on and let em have it. Josh's dad actually gets a little excited when we tell him we have an announcement to make. He always thinks its a new baby.

Our family has always been extremely supportive of our large family, but the public at large is what sometimes gets to us. We hear comments like, "You do know what causes that, right?" and "They're all yours?!" I personally like the, "But you look too young to have so many children!" comment to which I always like to respond, "Well we are." Its not like I woke up one morning and thought, "You know I want to have truckloads of babies and spend my time changing diapers and cleaning up messes and fielding questions from curious onlookers." It really just happened, yes I do know how it happens. But we allowed it to if you will. We allowed the Lord to bless us with the children He has given us. I know that the return is going to be greater than any investment I have put in.

Psalm 127:3-5
Don't you see that children are God's best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Like a warrior's fistful of arrows
are the children of a vigorous youth.
Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children!
Your enemies don't stand a chance against you;
you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.