Two Pink Lines

It has happened again! Last Friday morning, with heart beating rapidly, I leaned over the bathroom sink and watched as two little pink lines slowly appeared on my pregnancy test.... "I'm pregnant!" I said to my husband as he anxiously peeked around the shower curtain. Wow! I am still in awe at the thought of God giving us a third child. What a blessing! Even now as I think about this child who we won't know for another nine months, my heart leaps in my chest, and my overwhelming tiredness momentarily fades into the background of my mind.

When Travis and I got married, we agreed that instead of using birth control we would let God be in control, believing that it is He who opens and closes the womb and believing His word that children are a gift of the Lord and that the fruit of the womb is a reward (Psalm 127:3). And what a true blessing and reward our children are to us! The thought that had we not fully trusted in the Lord by obeying our convictions and had consequently missed out on these gifts--Abel, Amariah, and baby #3--is devastating. In a society where pregnancies are often viewed as an "oops" and children as an expensive inconvenience, Travis and I are so thankful that we are able to rejoice when those two pink lines appear, knowing that each child is a gift from God.

"For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139:13-16)