Math Books and Vitamins

A friend who confessed to only skimming through all this nutrition talk encouraged me to take a break or two for those of y'all not so keen on greens. We'll get back to healthy eating shortly.

The other day the UPS man delivered a couple of boxes. The kids, as always, got excited. I tried to calm them down; I didn't want their hopes up. The boxes were just vitamins and new math books.

This is the season of math books and vitamins, laundry, baseball games and sleepovers. This is not the season in our family's life for something new and exciting. No new faces will join our crew; this is it-the seven of us. From here on out, it's not growing the family, it's helping each child grow.

This was a bittersweet realization for me. Sure, it's nice to start giving away mounds of baby clothes that won't be worn again by anyone in my home. I can hardly wait to be rid of the bulky baby items we won't ever need again. Diaper bags, I won't miss you!

But there is an element of surprise that will always be missing from our home now. We are absolutely sure (without some serious heaven-sent intervention) our family will not get any bigger. There is no tiny thought of Audrey as a big sister. She won't be one. There's no wonder when I fold up too-small baby clothes...will someone new come along? No, there is no new one coming. This is it. This is us. Who our family is.

Now it's just maintaining, growing up the ones we got. Yep, a little sad, but a bit freeing too. I have to focus on that freedom. You see, I think I'm a builder not a maintainer. I can start a pregnancy center, revamp another one and so on, but I'm not the one to stick around for 20 years making it run in the day to day. Of course, I don't get to switch families and start all over--and I don't want to, not today anyway, so it's a changing of seasons for me.

I was wrong when I said we won't add anyone else to our family. In about ten years (or the blink of an eye, really) we'll start adding sons-in-laws. I've been praying for them for years, I am excited to see who God will bring for my girls and I have much work to do to get my girls ready for a life of service to their Lord, husbands and children.