Actually, first of all, I need to share of the blessing that my husband is. Next month we will celebrate 17 years of marriage. I don’t know where the years have gone. It hasn’t always been easy but I couldn’t ask for a better partner in life. Many of you know that I was just 18 yrs old when we were married. I know now for certain that besides love, I married Chuck for security. He has been that security for me all these years. I am truly blessed by a man that loves me with all he is, despite who I am. But more than that I am so thankful that Chuck came into my life to show me my need for a Saviour. Without God as the center of our marriage we wouldn’t have the wonderful marriage we have.
I also have 7 other blessings—my children.
Coming from a small family, then meeting Chuck’s large family, I knew that a large family was what I wanted. As we began our married life together we felt that the Lord would have us have 6 children. Less than a year later we were expecting our first blessing. I was very excited to be having a baby but still very young. Just 6 weeks after Elijah Matthew Francis was born, we headed to Bible school. What an incredible challenge that was for me as a young first time mom. I was so very overwhelmed with all that I had to do as a wife and mother. Those first 6 months were very difficult. Eli was a good baby and eventually we all found a routine. I was also blessed with many experienced mothers around me to give me guidance and direction.
July 1997 July 2012Just 18 months after Eli was born, we welcomed our second blessing, Hala Anne-Marie. Many have asked about her name. Before I became pregnant with her I started looking at baby names, for whenever we had another one! I came across this name. It means “unexpected gift.” Having anther baby was not unexpected but having a girl as # 2 was totally unexpected. Chuck’s parents have 6 kids. They had to wait until baby #6 to get a baby girl. I figured that I would be just like them. So I figured that if God so blessed us with a little girl before #6, then she would be unexpected. And God gave her to us second! I remember how tiny she was and how much hair she had at birth. Chuck was often teased about how much more hair his daughter had than he did. Hala has had many challenges in her life so far. At 3 1/2 years old, we learned that she has VCFS, a genetic deletion on chromosome 22. For more information about VCFS, you can check out www.vcfsef.org It has been a long journey for her over the last 10 years but what a blessing she has been to our family.
January 1999 August 2012Another 20 months after Hala was born, came Kyle Andrew Paul. For most of my pregnancy with Kyle I didn’t feel blessed. I felt very overwhelmed with all that was going on in our lives. Being pregnant seemed to just make it worse. I was very excited to be able to have a home birth with Kyle at my parents house though. I thought about how easy Hala’s birth was and thought that it would be just as easy. Well it wasn’t! It was not how I thought it would go. Finally after labouring all day, he was born 1 minute to midnight. Then I began to bleed. It didn’t want to stop. My midwives were doing all they could to get it stopped. They were minutes away from calling an ambulance. In the midst of all this, Chuck called his dad to tell him of Kyle’s birth and also asked him to pray that the bleeding would stop. Moments later the bleeding stopped and we did not have to go to the hospital. The challenges didn’t stop with the birth of Kyle. I found him to be a very unhappy baby. He didn’t sleep well and fussed a lot. Plus I had 2 other kids 3 years old and under. I was exhausted. The next 2 years didn’t seem to get better either. Then just days before the birth of our #4 blessing, I noticed a change in Kyle. He had become a mellow, sweet little boy. Kyle became the most loving, gentle and humorous little boy I knew. He is still that same person but just not so little anymore.
September 2000 August 2012Blessing #4 came 2 years after #3, Charlotte May. She entered our family at a very busy time. We had just learned of Hala having VCFS and we were trying to go to the Philippines in a year’s time. I think for the first few years of Charlotte’s life she was the spoiled baby in the family. She was easy going and quick to learn. She always just went with the flow of the busyness of our lives. As the years have gone on, her easy going nature has caused her to be forgotten. She is so quiet and easy to please that we often don’t hear her in the midst of our noisy family. She is so very smart and has recently been showing her sensitive side.
September 2002 September 2012Blessing #5 arrived 5 years later, Sophia Irene. Sophia was born while we were in the midst of Tagalog language study. From there we returned to Canada for 9 months and then spent 18 months transitioning into the tribe. Sophia is a creature of habit. All those changes that happened in the first 3 years of her life did not help her or us one bit. Sophia is a feisty, strong willed little girl. I never thought that after 4 kids that we could have one that is so….challenging. She knows what she wants and lets everyone know it! As time has gone on, she is beginning to mellow, or maybe we are just getting soft in our old age! She is learning to settle faster and learning how to show her love to us so much more. She loves being a big sister to #6. I love watching them play together and become close sisters.
October 2007 October 2012Blessing #6 arrived 2 1/2 years later, Jenna Lee. Jenna has been such an easy going little girl from the start. She was happy and content even with all the changes going on in her little world. I remember being surprised at how tiny she was when she was born. With each little girl we had, I had been hoping for a little girl with red hair. Once she was born it appeared that she was going to be blonde like her daddy and the rest of her sisters. She had the least amount of hair of all the girls at birth. And it was/is very slow growing. As time went on, sure enough, Jenna had/has red hair! Sometimes it is more red than other times and it is not as red as my hair was as a little girl but no doubt about it, she is a red head!
April 2010 September 2012At this point we had OUR number! There was a slight sadness saying goodbye to babies in my house and a pregnant belly but I was able to look to the future and think about how many grandbabies I would have on day. I also looked forward to watching my kids grow.
Just as I was about to start potty training our last child, God showed us He had other plans for our family. As time went on after Jenna was born, I would find myself dreaming about the “what if’s” of having another child but even with those dreams I found peace and contentment with the 6 blessings I had. I never prayed that God would allow us to have another child. I never talked to anyone about those dreams. How come I was so surprised that God would see those thoughts of mine and chose to BLESS our family again?! First there was shock and then there was sadness. Why was I so sad?! Children are a blessing. For those of you know me, I am a planner. And well this little person didn’t fit MY plan! It appeared to mess up MY plans, our co-workers plans, Chuck’s parents plans, Chuck’s sister’s plans and many others.
As the days went on, and we shared our news. And we heard the excitement in the voices of family and friends (yes there was some shock there too!) I started to think and pray about this little one. I was reminded of the blessings that my children are to me and how this little one will be a blessing to ME, to us, to others and to God. We don’t know God’s plans for this little girl but we do know that she was in HIS plan all along. I feel truly blessed that God has given ME this special gift, a desire of my heart, that only He knew about. How awesome is our God!
God also makes us laugh with the number of little girls we have. After thinking that I would end up with 5 boys, we are going to have 5 girls and 2 boys! Yes, we are going to have another little girl.
These days I dream of what she is going to look like, what colour hair she will have, what her personality will be like. Each of our children are different and yet they have similarities. What traits will she have from each of her siblings???
“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand.” (Psalm 31:15, 16a NASB)
“May He grant you your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your counsel!” (Psalm 20:4 NASB)
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