What?
One husband of 30 years and 3 precious children later, I look back and am so amazed of our journey and how the Lord’s plan has unfolded for us. Going back a bit further I remember how I lined up dolls and stuffed animals because I was their mom and had to take care of them…so when we married in 1985 there was never much of a plan for birth control. By the end of our second year of marriage I knew there was a problem. The doctor’s visits were frequent and brought many disappointments but fortunately our story does not stop there.
In May of 1990, just one day after our 5th anniversary, our first, a beautiful daughter, was laid in our arms. All was well, so we thought. Several months passed and developmentally, our baby girl did not progress to doing things as other 12 – 15 month old babies. We didn’t know what was in store but we did know that the Lord did and he would prepare us every step of the way.
Just one year later, another baby girl came our way. We had so many questions. Why were we so blessed? God had a plan. Two beautiful daughters for us that we thought completed our home. By the time our second daughter could walk, the day of her 1st birthday, we understood part of the plan. Our oldest daughter that was born at 26 weeks, had been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and we had been told she would never walk, talk, dress herself, or feed herself. Once she saw our youngest daughter walking, I believed right then she made up her mind to walk and she literally followed in her footsteps. What a blessing and a joy! We celebrated!
Now, I am a believer that God provides us with everything we need and much of what we desire. In our case, I feel like He truly heard my hearts cry and provided more than we deserved. In August of 1999, we brought home one more child, a son! What a full heart we had with this addition to our family.
Today…today our journey continues. Our oldest daughter is out on her own driving her own car and living in her own home and yes she feeds and dresses herself and if you don’t believe she can talk then I challenge you to get a word in edgewise when you are in a conversation with her! We now have a son-in-love as our second daughter has married. We have the pleasure of continuing to raise our son. My heart shivers at the thought of the day that our son leaves home but my head knows that each day is a gift from God and he will always carry me through the difficult times.
Finally, in our family we have changed the question from “Why” to “What”. It is not always for us to know why. Why can’t we have children? Why does my firstborn have cerebral palsy? Why did my heart break when we gave our second child away in marriage? Why is my son growing up so fast? but, What? What, Lord do you have for us next? What do we do to line up with Your Will for us during this season? What, Lord? Show us.
Author: Anonymous
Lamentations 3:2-23
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.