I asked if anyone would be willing to discuss a topic that isn’t easy and share the story of their fertility journey. I have had a very good response from many of you and I’m honored to finally begin presenting some of the stories that have graciously been provided by some wonderful women.
In this series women with different experiences will share the pain and blessings that the gift of fruitfulness carries with it, in the hope of bringing out God’s grace and promise to those couples struggling to welcome this gift when it is not known how it will turn out in a sinful world.
Whether the result be a healthy child, a child who goes almost immediately to be with Christ, or there is no gift of life, all women of child-bearing age wrestle with this cross and the unforeseen works of God that are to come.
While we might envy God’s work in another woman or couple, Christ alone designs the cross appropriately for each. To desire to please God in this sinful world will entail suffering. But there is comfort in knowing we are not alone. There is value in hearing each other stories, that while our paths are different, it is still a struggle of faith, which all God’s children share.
And it is a great comfort to know that God’s love is not found in how many children we are given or have taken from us, but in the saving sacrifice of Christ on the cross and in His glorious resurrection.
This is Sarah’s story.
I come from a tricky background. I have three brothers, only one of whom I really knew, and two sisters, again, only one of whom I really knew. Each of us, also had the pleasure of having a different father. Told you it was tricky. My brother and sister that I knew, were 20 and 16 years older than me, so I was pretty much an only child, just the three of us. Step dad, mom, and myself.
Unfortunately, my mother has been through 6 marriages and I was her last baby. She never really discussed ‘when you have children’ or ‘when you get married’. And she was really the only one that would have talked to me about it and didn’t. Personally, I didn’t see myself being a mother until motherhood happened. After that, there was no way I could think otherwise.
My husband and I were brought together in marriage because we were having our oldest child. I was a strapping 18 years old when we got married, we were both super nervous and glad we had support from some of our family members. In the beginning of our marriage, between children, I would get on ‘the pill’, but after our third, after we started getting more biblical views on the gift of childbearing, I stopped using it all together.
