After the birth of our 5th baby (4th surviving), I received the predictable question, "are you done?" so many times I stopped counting. The fact that people think it's their business to pry into our personal lives astounds me. What's worse, my children went to a Christmas celebration with friends and started tearing up because they missed their sibling who died. The mother of their friend said something to the effect of, "Well, you wouldn't have this new baby had the other baby survived." I suppose she was (erroneously) assuming that had we had 4 living children we wouldn't have wanted a 5th. Even had that been so, who would ever almost celebrate the death of a child? The culture of death and the obsession with control in our society prevents people from seeing the beauty of children and big families. And, for whatever reason, this same culture makes it seem as if it is society's right to dictate to people how many children they think a person should have. Whenever people ask me if we're planning on having more, I always say, "I am open to however many God wants to send, and don't worry, I won't ask you to raise them!"
After the birth of our 5th baby (4th surviving), I received the predictable question, "are you done?" so many times I stopped counting. The fact that people think it's their business to pry into our personal lives astounds me. What's worse, my children went to a Christmas celebration with friends and started tearing up because they missed their sibling who died. The mother of their friend said something to the effect of, "Well, you wouldn't have this new baby had the other baby survived." I suppose she was (erroneously) assuming that had we had 4 living children we wouldn't have wanted a 5th. Even had that been so, who would ever almost celebrate the death of a child? The culture of death and the obsession with control in our society prevents people from seeing the beauty of children and big families. And, for whatever reason, this same culture makes it seem as if it is society's right to dictate to people how many children they think a person should have. Whenever people ask me if we're planning on having more, I always say, "I am open to however many God wants to send, and don't worry, I won't ask you to raise them!"
Amen, with sympathy for your loss and appreciation for your openness to life. God bless.