On 11th March 2014, we celebrated 19 years of married life. And today, 12th March 2014, our “baby”, the 7th child, turns 5.
For both events, I am truly grateful to our Lord. I do not take for granted our marriage and neither do I take for granted having our 7 living children.
Influenced by the feminist mindset that I could do anything I wanted and did not need a man, I did not want to get married not did I want to have any children. So dating and the like was all about having fun. It did not cross my mind that I should be assessing guys I meet to see if they were good husband or father material and to choose them accordingly.
So it is indeed, truly by the grace of God that Henson is both good husband and father material. We had clicked immediately from the first time we met. In fact, I have often marvelled at how little we have in common : he is musical, I am not. He can play all sorts of sports, I cannot. He was not a reader* but I was. Etc, etc, etc…And yet we could talk about anything and everything. Yep, it was a God thing even though when we met, neither of us were into God, at all 🙁
Then we decided to get married and I found God while he found his way back to God. But we both said, “no kids”. And that was that. But later we decided to have one child and then 2 coz one is too lonely, ya know 😉 And then we read about trusting God with our family size and spacing and felt led to take that leap of faith. And now we have 7 children and the youngest is now 5. So, no. We didn’t have all these children because we really, really love children 😛
It has been scary, stressful and tiring to have babies and toddlers every other year. There has been talk (some pleasant, others not so) about our life choices and lifestyle. From those near and far. Having been interviewed by the press a few times have even led to total strangers commenting on our life! Yes, I know how the Duggers must feel.
But I choose to be grateful and I often (when not drowning in grading homework and laundry) stand in awe of what the Lord has chosen to give to us. For 2 people who started out not wanting children to being parents of 7.
It is only something God can do.
I look at the children and for all the hard work (physical and emotional) they put me through I am glad I did not stop at 2. Sure, life would have been easier but oh! the joy, the tears, the laughter and the lessons learnt. I am thankful. Grateful. Humbled.
Thank you, Lord, for bringing Henson and I together and for the 7 living children and 3 angel babies You’ve chosen to bless us with. Thank you for not letting us stop at 2.
* Due to my great influence (lol!) he now reads more than I do! But I am still not musical nor sporty.