Lucie is 3 and that has me reflecting...

What a treasure and a joy our Lucie is to us!  I've written before about my journey to becoming quiverfull.  If the Lord hadn't moved on my heart almost 5 years ago, we would only have 4 children, I would still have a career, I would be stressed out most all of the time,  our kids would all go to school, my husband would be sorely neglected, the kids and I wouldn't be able to participate in Community Bible Study together or do a great many of things together that we do, I wouldn't have embarked on the life-changing 90 day Bible journey again and again, I wouldn't know you, and who knows what else would be different. 

But God did move on my heart and gave me a greater desire to be home with my children and make them my mission field than to feel the approval of the world or have my intellectual needs met.  And he moved on my husband's heart so that he would give me his blessing to come home and dramatically reduce our income in the process.  My husband was reluctant at first, but then made the committment to do whatever it took, even if it meant working more than one job.  But God (those two words again) was gracious and intervened and provided for us over and above what we could have imagined and we are no worse off financially than when I was working!  God is so good!

I became pregnant almost immediately after this change of heart and giving my notice and took it as a sign that this was God's will.  Then I miscarried (what a misnomer, but that's another post) and it left me wondering why.  Not why did I miscarry, but why did God change my heart and the course of my life, all our lives, and then take this child that I took to be a sign of being in God's will.  You know how it is with these things, you never really know why for sure other than to bring you closer to the Lord through suffering, but I thought maybe it was so I would appreciate the four children He had already blessed us with more than I had before.  The thought that God had moved mountains in my heart and mind in order to have me home with my four kids was astounding to me.  We enjoyed a fun family ski vacation after my miscarriage and then the Lord blessed us with another pregnancy.  This time we got Lucie!  She was worth waiting for!

Notice she's holding her guitar like a violin.  Too funny!

Lucie has truly brought us joy every day of her life.  The big kids and the grandparents get onto me about how permissive I am with her.  It's not that she doesn't have to mind, she does, but things she does that the other kids got into trouble for, her dad and I just laugh at now.  Big D and I joke that with these babies of our old age, we've become our own children's grandparents!  (I was 34 and Big D was 38 when we came to this change of heart.)  I love that when Big D and I are in our 50s and all our friends are empty nesters, we'll still have kids at home.  What fun!  God has blessed us so much beyond what we deserve or could even have asked for!