When Elsa was about 4 weeks old, and I was still feeling the ravages of a c-section I was at a parish function and a mother mentioned to me how she was hoping to have another baby soon. She is the mother of a large family and is, at the moment, nursing a 5 month old.
I stared at her and clearly the look on my face said “Are you crazy?”, as she laughed at me. I stammered “But, but you JUST had a baby?!”
“I know, she said, but you just had one sooner, so of course you think I am crazy! But I just love giving life, and I so want to have one more baby, before I am too old to be able to have any more.”
The conversation changed, and I thought no more of it for a while. Then when Elsa was about 7 weeks old – I caught myself thinking; “It would be so awesome to have one more baby – a little boy, some blue around the house again would be nice.”
This thought, before it had entirely registered, was sadly immediately followed by the thought of “what would my father say?” I sat there pondering this reality, that my family while embracing each of my children fully, does not understand my willingness to have so many children. To be open to life.
Suddenly an answer to the question; “Aren’t you too old?” posed itself in the form of another question.
“If I am too old – why does God allow women my age to still be fertile?”
1 comment:
As to your closing question... I am a fool for answering rhetorical questions... never understood the idea...
BUT, the question you pose is very tied to each person's faith. If this is not a rhetorical question, all any of us can do is propose a range of answers... which I will put on hold until I find out if this IS a rhetorical question!
I have to say, you seem to handle the whole big family thing in a wonderful way... and that has a lot to do with the answer to the question. Any gift God gives us is balanced by what we do with that gift, eh?
lor
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