After Cyndi and I finalized the adoption of our third child last year, I told the Lord we were done. I made it very clear to him: three kids are challenging enough. No matter what kind of heart-wrenching story we might hear on the phone from some adoption agency, we just didn’t have any more room in our family.
That’s the moment God laughed and said, “We’ll see about that.” Last month, ten years after we stopped trying to conceive children, we found out that we’re pregnant.
First came the shock. “Are you kidding me? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Then the denial. “It must be a mistake. Somehow three different pregnancy tests all came out wrong.”
Then the pain of realizing how much this changes. “We just started sleeping through the night. We just got all three kids into school. We just started planning a big trip for our 15th anniversary. All of that’s gone.”
Then the acceptance at the ultrasound appointment. “I’m watching something 2 centimeters long kicking inside of you, honey. I’m pretty sure it’s not an alien.”
Then the hope. “Lord, this is clearly a miraculous gift from you. Thank you for proving your sovereignty.”
When we told our kids, they were just as shocked as us. “But… but this has never happened before!” said our oldest. “How did this happen?” asked our youngest.
There was no other answer: “God made it happen.” Never before have the words of Psalm 139 been so amazingly clear to me:
You formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.