The Unapparent Blessing

I know this is a hot topic for women and I know all about proclaiming the right to have the choice.  What I want to say is this.  There are a lot of people in this world who would love to have the choice to have a child to love.  There are many people in this world that, due to parental alienation, have been denied the right to see their children.  A child is a gift.  Maybe it's not the gift you want at the time it is given to you. Maybe the beauty of that gift becomes apparent during your developing pregnancy.     Maybe you are not open or ready to receive a child into your life, but maybe someone else wants a child more than you can ever imagine.  Maybe that "thing" you never wanted is all that someone else has ever prayed to receive.   If there is any way you can consider bringing that child into this world- to God's altar,  there will be a blessing beyond anything you will ever know.  

Don't waste your gifts.  If you don't want it, bless someone else. 

I know a beautiful couple who longed to have children for years. They tried having children biologically, but it was not working out for them. They prayerfully considered adoption and things started coming together.  Yet, it was still a painful process. There were miscarriages and mothers who decided to keep their children.  Finally, they got the call that they were going to be parents to a little boy. They would adopt him and he would be their son.   The family was finally coming together.  Not long after the adoption, they got a call about a family of four girls who had been displaced.  It was not desirable to break these girls up to be taken care of by multiple families. My friends prayerfully considered the potential "burden" of going from no children to five children in less than a year.  There was no "burden," but four additional blessings.    This is one of the most beautiful and faithful families I have ever met.   What if any or all of the mothers who had these children had deemed them "inconvenient?"

Fast forward several years. I met another couple who longs to have a child. They tried adoption but the process was shut down when the mother decided she wanted to resume custody.  It was heartbreaking. Rather than go down that road again, they have tried everything to have a child biologically. They have exhausted every spare penny they have, and have expressed on numerous occasions how people are who don't exhaust every possibility to have children are selfish.  In their minds, until every avenue has been explored and every last chance has been taken, people who don't try harder are "selfish." Well, every avenue except for adoption.  Every avenue except the one that will give a wonderful life to a child whose parents cannot care for it for whatever reason. Every avenue will be explored, except the one that gives hope and peace to a mother who will bear a child but not be able to parent that child.  We have discussed adoption and they are absolutely unwilling to consider it.  If they cannot have a child biologically, they will not have children and I am sad that they will feel an incomplete family while a child who needs wonderful parents may never experience what these two have to offer.

Last couple wanting to have a child. There is a great desire made even more beautiful because one of them was adopted and has made quite the success story of his life.  This couple will not have biological children of their own unless they are able to find a surrogate who can carry a child for them. Yet there is a great desire to adopt and provide a home for a child who might not have a chance at "family" otherwise.  I cannot say enough about what a loving home this couple would be able to give.  Everything at the core of the personality of both of these people is about love.  They are about giving, serving, and making this world a better place to live in.   They are about not giving up on the possibilities for greatness in this world.

We never know who we can bless through our adversity. Sometimes we are given a gift that we cannot immediately recognize.  Sometimes we do not know what God has given us that can be a gift to someone else.  Maybe it is compassion. Maybe it is money. Maybe a beautiful home or life saving skills.   Maybe it is a child conceived under less than optimal circumstances.

Blessings look different to all of us. Sometimes they don't even look or feel like blessings when they are given to us.   I just ask you to consider whether that circumstance that burdens you may be used to bless someone else.

In the words of a song by Laura Story "What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears?"    We never know how God gives his mercy to us.   Sometimes we just have to wait to see how it comes to conclusion.  Waiting is hard.  Receiving blessings that don't feel like blessings is hard.  Blessing someone in our storm is hard.  But sometimes the end result is so beautiful we cannot even imagine.

Blessings-Laura Story