Family By Divine Design:: March 2011

17 March 2011

"Children are an heritage of the Lord"

Do you ever have moments when you're talking with people and you find yourself giving what you perceive to be the expected response? So things come out of your mouth that you don't actually think are true? This happened to me within the last month, and I want to come clean to somebody since the moment is gone for me to clarify and restate my actual feelings to the person with whom I was speaking.
Some necessary background is this - although I live in Idaho, and have done so all of my life (besides college) I don't really feel like I live in Idaho. Where I currently live the population is predominantly liberal (the only liberal county in the state) and less than 10% of the population is LDS. I'm not anti-liberals, but I certainly can't claim to be one myself. In fear of generalizing I don't mean to say that all liberals are this way, but very few people here have more than two children. In most cases, the exceptions are LDS families, but there are others as well. So here I am, pregnant with our third child. Which I am thrilled about. But I don't think many of my peers in this area would be thrilled to find themselves in the same situation.
I faithfully take my children to story time at the library every week and I occasionally chat with people. More people talked to me one day when it was discovered I was pregnant. One woman said to me, "Wow. You're brave!" And I found myself giving what I figured was the expected response, "Or crazy." I got a few laughs, but I instantly felt guilty.
This pregnancy was planned. I want more children! I do have moments of course when I wonder if I am crazy. Being a mother is far more challenging than I could possibly have conceived before becoming one. No career I could have chosen would have been as challenging, as fulfilling, or as effective at revealing all of my weaknesses to me as this one. Do I have moments when I wish I was doing something else? Absolutely - almost anything else! But I know deep down that this is what I should be doing, what I want to be doing, and what I have always wanted to do! I am not crazy for choosing to have more children; children are a blessing. There are certainly ways that it's easy to see that children could be viewed as more of a burden than a blessing, but I don't feel that way! And I wish I hadn't given the impression that I thought of my children as anything but a blessing. What I should have said was, "Or just greedy for blessings!" That would have been the truth. And I just needed to get it off of my chest. :)
Psalms 127:3 Lo, ^achildren are an ^bheritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his ^creward.

David's Bio

I grew up in southeastern Idaho moving at age one from the center of our town to the outskirts. This home had approximately ten acres and much of my youth was spent outdoors both playing and working with my grandparents on their farms. I enjoyed sports throughout my life and was active in wrestling and football throughout junior high and high school. My junior and senior years at high school a sweet young girl even convinced me to join the ballroom dance team. I graduated from high school and attended BYU where I earned my Bachelors degree in Biology in April 2007. Having been raised in the gospel it has always been an influence in my life.

Rachael's Bio

I lived in south central Idaho on a two-acre property in a three-story home until the fourth grade. We moved to Idaho's capitol where we lived until I was in eighth grade when we moved to south eastern Idaho. This move affected my life greatly. It helped me to gain and solidify my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as helped me decide how accurately I was going to live the gospel. This is also where I met David who was to become my best friend and husband. After graduating from high school in 2001 I attended BYU for four and a half years and graduated with a B.A. in Modern Dance, shortly before giving birth to our first child. Through all of my experiences my faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ and my dedication to living His gospel with integrity has increased. My greatest desire is that I will be able to help my children live and love the gospel.

Our Love Story

Rachael and David met first in their ward after Rachael moved in at the age of fourteen. Rachael's family had just moved across town to a home more suited to their needs than the original duplex. Both of their families were active in the church and Rachael and David both served in leadership positions of their respective YM/YW groups. With that constant exposure to each other was added the fact that they went to the same high school and were in the same graduating class. They found each other to be attractive and dated each other quite a bit near the end of their senior year and the summer afterward. After his freshman year at BYU David went on a mission to Russia - Rachael wrote him about every month and a half, just as an "interested" friend. Rachael was at home working for the summer when David returned from his mission and immediately felt that she wanted to date him again, so she asked him to go see the Phantom of the Opera in Salt lake City; thereafter followed about six months of courtship before they were married in Logan, Utah. Now they're both "the luckiest."