REPOSTED FROM 7/22/2010 (edits in italics)
Mark and I want as many (or as few) children as the Lord sends us. It's exciting to watch His hand on my womb and see His constant provisions! While we'd LOVE to have 12 (or even more), we truly desire to see HIM plan how many blessings He sends us.
The awe-inspiring and faith-encouraging thing that we've seen happen through our births (5) (2019: 10), our miscarriages (7) (2019: 20) and our adoptions (3), is that with each one GOD has provided physically, emotionally, mentally and financially in MIRACULOUS Old Testament-type ways. It literally gives me chills. GOD HAS ALWAYS PROVIDED.
So back to the original question...
Affording all these kiddos...
Does God's provision mean that we have always had or should have enough money to spend on worldly luxuries? No.
We started out very modestly. Mark and I married before his last semester in college. We got pregnant with Kaitlyn on our honeymoon. We got pregnant with Ethan 6 months after her birth. Then we adopted Annalise from Kazakhstan the following year. All of these unplanned for life circumstances happened well before Mark had sufficiently established his financial advisory practice. It was tough, at times, but the Lord ALWAYS supplied us with what we needed.
Mark and I are both penny-pinchers, so we have always been sure to stay on a tight budget. We cut some corners so that we can spend more in other areas. We have and always will resist buying "new" cars. (In fact, we buy at car auctions, drive the car and then re-sell, often for more than what we paid for it.) We have and always will shop at thrift stores for exhilarating bargains. We buy things on sales, when possible, and stock up.
Did we sacrifice at times? Yes! Did we suffer? No!
Throughout the years of tightening our purse strings to living very comfortably, we have always trusted that God (and God alone) knows what's best for us and will never send any child that will prove to be a DRAIN or a BURDEN to us, as a family.
It's been said that, "Children aren't expensive, lifestyles are." It's true more often than not in America. Parents can make lifestyle choices that will hurt them financially. And, yes, people have the tendency to blame the "extra children" as being the cause of that financial hardship, when instead its choices to make purchases above our means. While I wholeheartedly believe that life is not easy, and sometimes we Americans expect it to be a certain way if we "plan" well, that's not always the case. Our future simply cannot always be perfectly pre-determined and pre-planned.
God alone is the only One who can see around our life's road. He alone knows what (or WHO) we need and when. He never creates mistakes, and never does He punish us with a child!
So, I see that the issue of "affording children" as really about righteous stewardship. If someone hits that bump in the road, then the Church of Jesus Christ needs to step up and help out.
The bottom line is that if God is the Potter and we are the clay, we should accept His plan for us, while being wise stewards of all He has entrusted to us; we should accept the blessings we've been or will be given and manage our resources wisely, leaving the rest to God!
Lisa Metzger