Three miscarriages into my motherhood, one of which I had almost died and had to be whisked to the emergency room to save my life, had left me with one more moment of, “God, I know it is not reasonable to ask you for this miracle,” sort of prayer.
But God says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him,” right? And so one of the most profound times of perservering in prayer in my life, was praying, asking, begging, against all odds, for one more little baby, when I was 41 years old and soon to be beyond child bearing. But by my forties, I had fallen in love with my children and with motherhood.
And so that prayer was providentially answered, given generously and blessed my 40ish old life with my darling, overwhelmingly delightful, Joy.
And so this morning, I am missing her, while she is far off at college, but with a smile in my heart, because she often brings smiles to my life. And this is what I read on her facebook as I was closing out my day last night:
Confession: I LOVE that I was home schooled. Call me nerdy, antisocial, or culturally irrelevant… I know it’s just cause you’re jealous YOU didn’t get to learn about the Revolutionary war in your pajamas whilst drinking hot chocolate. 
Joy
And so I left a comment on her page:
“Your teacher highly approves of this confession.” 
(the maker of hot chocolate)
It is in seeing the little things in life, his whispers, where we find our joy, (pun intended).
I wonder what it feels like to know that you are a very specific answer to prayer……….
“It is in seeing the little things in life, his whispers, where we find our joy”
) and I had to swing back for something I had forgotten. My littlest two were so excited to see me! (I had only been gone for an hour or so) and my bigger kids wanted to talk to me too. It was like the Lord just drawing me close and reminding me that I am indeed loved. It was SUCH a blessing to me! I can so identify how much it means to be thanked in a a “small” way for doing our job. 
Yesterday, I dropped my children off for a MUCH anticipated sleep over with my mother (grandma’s being the MOST favorite place EVER
“It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires He creates.” ~ Amy Carmichel
I have thought of you and your Joy many times in the past two months as I wallow in the joy of our miracle! At 38 and after 10 years of praying, God has opened my womb one more time! We are in the last week of our first trimester, and feeling life swell within me… after desiring it for so long… it warms every nook and cranny in my heart.
Thank you for the reminder Sally, to keep having faith…we are praying for a fourth blessing for almost two years now and will keep praying. I am head over heels in love with motherhood and not many understand my desire for at least one more sweet baby!!
She is SO cute!
After our son, Matthew, passed away shortly after his preemie birth, we were not sure I could carry a baby full term but with surgery I carried Stephanie (all 9 lbs. 2 1/2 oz.) the next year.
After I’d given up on any more children, almost twelve years later I went to the doctor thinking I had a cyst and he told me that “cyst” would clear up in six months, hehehe.
It was so difficult during those years but now I look back and see His wisdom. My son and his new wife came over to our house after my eye surgery yesterday (I am typing with one good eye) and I realized all over again how blessed I was having this “later in life” child. Especially when his sister moved 1,000 miles away. God knew…
love love your stories! makes me smile.
Joy’s description of homeschooling … makes me smile with many memories.
Your story was just what I needed this morning. After 8 miscarriages I had almost given up on my passion to have just one more child. Your story has encouraged me so much! I don’t feel like my family is finished yet and I truly feel that God has an amazing plan for another child for us! Thanks for the little pick me up.
Perfect!!!
This story also touched me as I would love another child (or children!), if the Lord so wills. Thank you for sharing!
I too had multiple miscarriages and it was during these times that I thought the Lord was silent but He wasn’t. In the midst of the anguish our wonderful Father was there carrying my burdens and sadness.
I now have two wonderful children who shower me with love and care. Just this evening my 11 yr old told me to step away from the kerb because I was too close as a bus whisked passed us on a main street in Sydney.
It’s in these little things and just like your Joy’s Facebook comment where we see the impact of our love. It’s wonderful!
Sally, your last sentence is so precious and hits close to home–I’m reading this while nursing my own answer to prayer, who came 2 weeks ago and we named Sarah Grace–she is this mama’s delight and the beautiful answer to five years of fervent prayer. Your relationship with your “caboose” makes me smile
Sally, you are an answer to many of our prayers! Your words of encouragement via conferences, blogs, books etc are each one an answer to prayer for weary mamas. Thank you!
I lost a baby on Christmas day at 19 weeks pregnant. It took us over a year of praying to want to try again but now I have 7 weeks to go in this pregnancy, being due on December 1st, an early Christmas present!!! God is so, so, so good! Thankful for answered prayers! And I do believe YOU Sally, are one of them!
Lord knows how I just now stumbled upon your blog. This comment box is not big enough to speak grace and thankfulness over the ways the Lord has spoke to my mothering heart through your books. I look forward to reading more. And so thankful for your faithfulness that opens up Him to use you!
Sally,
Wow, what a timely post. I had 5 healthy children in a row, but in the last year have (technically) gone through 4 miscarriages. The first 2 were super early, the kind that is very common, yet painful. The last 2 were both at 14 weeks. You can imagine the shock of going to the hospital twice and doing the same miscarriage- twice. Both miscarriages seem to have different causes…and my bloodwork came out fine. I told my husband that maybe it is time to look into international adoption, something we have talked about for years. I LOVE LOVE LOVE adoption… but… my husband is saying that I am still young. I don’t think either of us is ready to get serious about adoption just yet. It is complicated, because I’ve been told that a couple cannot be pregnant and adopting at the same time. This seems like an either/or type of decision. Although I have not spoken with my own doctor about this yet, I had a lot of nurses volunteer that they think we ought to give this another shot. Maybe they are basing it off of my age: 36.
Sally, if you are willing and have time, I’d love to hear more about your miscarriage journey. Verses God gave you during that time, and such… The stories here are encouraging… I’d love to hear more stories of moms with multiple miscarriage, what happened during that time, what God showed them, how they made decisions, and what happened in the end. I am still relatively new to this world of multiple miscarriage and had not realized that it was not super uncommon. One thing I am really struggling with is wondering how long God will allow me to be in this season of grief. It has made me very very weary. I’m still here and making it because of His love… I just wonder how much he will allow me to go through.
Thank you for this post, Sally… Blessings to you.