Same Start, but Different Paths.
Last year I saw a photo of a home-schooling couple who married the same year we did. They were the same ages we were when we married. They had 7 children and an 8th on the way. I thought, “Wow, that could have been us.” Had things been different we could have had a 4 year old, and a two year old, and a newborn by our 5th anniversary. Our 5th anniversary being the day that after years of hoping and praying we brought our first born miracle home. Had things been different we might have had another 3 children by the time we were expecting in 2008. Had things been different I too might have had a cute little boy on my oldest child’s hip while pregnant with my 8th child in 16 years.
But, things were not different and as tough as times have been I would not trade the life that God has given us for the life that might have been. I would not trade the relationship I have with my husband for having traveled the difficulties of the mountains and valleys of our lives together. I would not trade the quantity of couple time, without sacrificing family time, that we have been blessed with. I would not trade the closeness and undivided attention of time spent with my firstborn. The things we have been able to do and be because God planned our lives the way He did.
As I looked at that photo and looked at our little family of three there was a tinge of sadness over the oldest that never was and the 2 year old that might been. I didn’t envy the difficulties of constantly having one in diapers, while pregnant, while homeschooling, while trying to find couple time. I’m sure she wouldn’t envy the difficulties of not knowing what to do while waiting years for that first child to come, of not having many hands to help, or only one student to teach, or the struggle infertility can take on a marriage.
We both serve God in our families. We both put our marriage first in our homes. We both home-school by conviction. It’s just the how we do these things on a daily basis that is different. In the differences I can see and appreciate the blessings in the path that I am on instead of the path I expected to travel.