Another one of our most Frequently Asked Questions is “Are you going to have more?”
I (Tami) find it interesting that this question is most often asked of us right after a child is born. I’m not sure why people ask that particular question at that time, because the truth is, right after the birth of a child I am in so much pain (in all kinds of places) that I am not even thinking about having another child. It is beyond me why people are compelled to ask if we are going to have more so shortly after I have given birth. To me it’s like asking a marathon runner who has just collapsed at the finish line if he is going to run another marathon.
This feeling of exasperation was compounded the year our son Trezdin James was born. Adding a boy to into the mix was fun but it also meant that we would now had five children 6 yrs old and under. That by it self was a difficult challenge, but the unfortunate circumstance that happened occurred next only compiled our feelings of stress and exhaustion.
We had only been in our big two story house in Carmel, Indiana for a year when we felt a calling from God to leave Indiana and serve a church in Muskegon, Michigan. After we had established our new home there Trezdin James was born. He came about three weeks early and was a little guy, weighing in at 5 lbs and 2 oz. He was perfectly healthy (thankfully, as all our children have been) and we were able to take him home after only being in the hospital for about 36 hours. We had been home for 2 hours when we got a phone call from the elementary school nurse. She seemed a bit shaken as she began to tell me that our oldest (then 6 year old) daughter Ashlin had an accident on the playground. She was not able to walk on her leg and the nurse recommend that we take her to the hospital right away. So, we packed up our not even two day old son and picked Ashlin up from the school. We headed right back to the hospital where Trezdin had just been born!
She had suffered a severe break to her big bone (Tibia) in her leg. She had been playing on the playground when she decided to slide down the fire pole. Because she was wearing her snow pants and gloves she slid with such great force she spiral broke her leg on impact with the cold hard ground. She was one sore little girl! She was placed in a full leg cast that went up past her thigh and was in a wheel chair for 8 weeks. They had to re-set and re-cast her leg 2 times beyond her initial casting. She then got the full leg cast removed and was placed in a shorter leg cast for another 4 weeks.
“Are you going to have more?” was such a laughable question at this point in our life. We had a newborn baby and 4 other children, one who needed just as much help as our newborn, and it was the dead of winter in Muskegon, Michigan! This was one of those times when I just looked up at God and said, “OK God, will you please give me the strength to handle all of this.” God answered that prayer and He helped us survive the 12 weeks of cast and the entire next year of physical therapy.
One thing that is funny to Todd and I is that after our son Trezdin James was born, people began to say, “You have to have more! You have to give him a brother!” Of course, after all we had been through (an ectopic pregnancy and a partial molar pregnancy) we knew that we weren’t in control of if or when we would have another baby and we most certainly knew that there was nothing we could do to influence the gender outcome of our next child!
We were so overjoyed to have our first son, and absolutely would have loved another boy right after him, but that wasn’t God’s plan. Instead, God gave us two more beautiful girls, Irelin and Brealin. Trezdin finally did get a brother (actually three of them) after the girls were born.
So, to answer the question… “Are you going to have more?” Well, the answer is, Yes! We are going to have at least 1 more. She is due in the early part of February 2015.
“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always”
~ 2 Chronicles 16:11 ~