I have been trying to think about how to write this post for a long time. I know I have various readers with different belief systems. You all know that I am a Christian, some might call me a conservative. I honestly don’t know how I would classify myself other than an imperfect follower of Christ. My problem lies with when there is a difference of opinion often we go on the defense or even worse, on the attack. Now lets be clear I am not talking about anyone in particular…just what I have observed in the past. I am going to attempt to explain my answers to a few questions I get asked that, up until now, I have skirted around. I am not trying to defend or push my view but just simply state this is where Dave and I are at…this is how we see things. If you think I am a quack job…well…we are all entitled to our own opinions…but at the end of the day we all have to live with our decisions.

SO ARE YOU GUYS DONE YET…OR ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ANYMORE?

My answer would usually go something like this.. Oh I don’t know I suppose anything is possible.

THE TRUTH

Quite some time ago Dave and I decided to trust God with our family size. We believe that God is the author of life. We can prevent life but we can’t create it without God. Even fertility treatments fail. There are many verses in the Bible where it talks about God opening and closing wombs. I know there are many people who put no faith in the Bible, I know there are some who feel that was long ago we have so many advancements. For us it came down to if we are trusting God with our lives why not our fertility as well.

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP? 10 KIDS 20?

I don’t know, I think those kind of numbers are unlikely. We neither try, nor prevent getting pregnant… we thankfully take the blessings that come our way.

WHAT IF YOUR HEALTH COULD BE SERIOUSLY HARMED BY FUTURE PREGNANCIES?

Excellent question. I asked my OB after Hannah was born if he felt I was putting myself in harms way by getting pregnant again. His reply was at that point he did not see any issues with me being pregnant again. I have successfully delivered 5 healthy children. The truth is that there are high risk pregnancies when women are in there 20s, 30s, 40s etc. Skinny women overweight women, women of various race….any pregnancy has the potential to become high risk. He told me if that became the case then he would take the proper precautions. If we had a high risk pregnancy and we were told that I would be jeopardising my health if we got pregnant again then of course we would consider our options. As much as we feel that God has said children are a blessing we would also concede that we have a responsibility to these little ones already entrusted to us.

WHAT ABOUT OVERPOPULATION?

Well, I am not an expert on this issue as for the bit I have read there seems to be as many arguments for it as against it. All you have to do is google overpopulation fact or myth and you will see what I mean. The truth that is unarguable is, here in Canada we have an aging population with a declining birth rate. Presently Canada is at 1.5 and to sustain a population you need 2.1. So well some could argue that we are adding to overpopulation I like to think we are doing our bit to help out our declining birth rate :).

I hope I have answered your questions and not created a whole bunch of new ones. If your wondering why I have never come out and just said Yes to the first question before. It is because we aren’t the norm, even in Christian circles. Dave gets jabs all the time at work, he has been told he’s crazy, that he’ll regret this one day etc. Maybe some people don’t know what to say to us and that is okay…unfortunately we’ve had lots of hurtful things said. We have been made to feel like 16 year old kids doing something wrong. In reality Dave and I are 100% committed to each other, we are crazy about our kids and value our family immensely.

All of that said…Dave and I joyfully announce that we are expecting…
Dave asked about the 3 I said that’s how many babies…hahaha it just means more than 3 weeks. I haven’t seen my doctor yet but we are thinking end of February beginning of March. When we told the kids it went over Hannah’s head for now, Elijah is extremely excited as are all of the other kids. Joel thinks it will be a little brother and that we should name him Saxon.