The Power of Veto

I'm head over heels in love with a smallish gentleman with a receding hairline.  I love him so much that something deep down inside of me flips whenever he smiles.  And I'm pretty sure he has a thing for me, too, because I catch him looking at me all the time!  In fact, something tells me that there's no place on Earth he'd rather be than in my arms, being smothered by my kisses.  And, man, is he beautiful to look at.  A work of art.  A masterpiece of creation.

If I'm being completely honest, I suppose I'd have to say that he's not always a gentleman.  He frequently burps out loud, screams at me, and emits unpleasant odors (even in public), but I love him just the same.  I'm thrilled to have finally met this man of my dreams three months ago, and I know our relationship will last for the rest of our lives.  Hopefully by then he'll have some teeth...and be more than two feet tall.

Let me introduce you to my precious little gentleman,  Baby K.  Isn't he scrumptious?  I thoroughly adore him, as does our entire family, but I have a confession to make.  Baby K was completely unplanned.  We weren’t expecting to have a baby.  Ever again.  Yes, we do understand where babies come from, but in a Biblical marriage, abstinence is simply not an option.  (As a side note, my husband also approves of this arrangement.)  We were taking all the necessary precautions, but God, in His infinite wisdom and mysteriousness, simply exercised His power of veto on our decision to be done.  This, of course, is perfectly within His rights to do - let’s call it a perk of being the Almighty Creator of the universe. 

Have you ever noticed that every single method of birth control available, even sterilization, has a failure rate?  I call it a veto rate.  It represents the number of times God has said something along the lines of “I understand your desire to not have a baby right now, but I respectfully disagree.  And since I’m God….”  End of discussion.

For a few weeks after we found out, I was very upset about being pregnant again.  My "baby" had just turned two, and I was starting to feel some freedom from being tied down with an infant.  I was able to do more things for myself, to use the gifts God had given me in different ways....ways that didn't always involve diapers and bottles.  My husband and I were finally recovering from becoming parents to four children in two years, were learning some therapeutic parenting skills to help with our two traumatized children, and were beginning to thrive as a family.  I had also spent the previous year losing 73 pounds, and I didn't want to start all over again.  I was bummed.  So I spent a few days crying, and then I said:

 "Okay, God, but this one better be a missionary or something...
                           ....and I want an easy delivery!"

As soon as I let go of my own plans and embraced God's plans, I fell in love with that little life inside of me just as easily as I had with the other two.  And now that he's here (it was an easy delivery!), I can't imagine life without him.  Baby K is such an incredible blessing, it makes me sad to think that there was a time when I was sad that he existed.  I was wishing I could turn down one of God's greatest blessings for less

work, a little freedom, and skinny jeans.  How selfish.

I'll be forever grateful that God exercised his veto power and gave us Baby K.  He's a lot of work.  I don't get much sleep, I'm overwhelmed all the time, and I feel like a dairy cow.  Having five kids is tough, but I'm less selfish than I was a year ago...and that makes me truly happy.

Will there be more babies?  Let's just say we're praying on it.  We've decided not to turn down any more blessings for selfish reasons, and we want to do what God wants us to do, not what's easiest for us.  For now, we think our hands are pretty full...but we're very aware that God always has the power of veto!