It’s hard to believe my “little” sister is 14 (Happy Birthday, Anna!). Even more amazing is that if my parents’ had not chosen to reverse a bad decision, she and my other four younger brothers and sister would not be here.
You see, there’s a seven year age difference between Joseph and I. After Dad and Mom had me, they decided three was enough. Several years later, Dad was home sick from work and decided to study the topic of what the Bible had to say about children. He came away broken by God. He had a reversal soon after, and within a year, Mom was expecting Joseph.
As I look at my five younger brothers and sisters, now 17, 15, 14, 12, and 10, my heart is filled with joy and gratitude to the Lord for giving us such blessings. I’m very, very grateful to my parents for choosing to go back on a decision they see was wrong (to limit the size of their family) and make things right.
My heart’s desire is that parents who have chosen to limit the size of their families may reconsider and see the blessings that children are. Dad wrote a Corner on this subject several years ago.
“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (Psalms 127:3-5).
Only for Jesus,
Sarah
This picture of Anna and Jesse was taken probably 9 years ago.
This was probably taken 9 years ago!
The Maxwell Ladies, October 2006, Left to Right – Melanie, Sarah, Mom (Teri), Anna (the birthday girl!), and Mary
What a blessing! I did not realize you were a reversal family. We are too! We have a daughter, ten and twin boys, eight. After the twins were born we made the horrible decision to end further blessings. Four years later the Lord began to work in my heart in amazing ways, showing me how wrong we were. I confessed my sin to the Lord but still carried the guilt for a long time. Then a friend rebuked me and said I had not accepted God’s forgiveness. Once I did accept His forgiveness He freed me from the guilt. Anyhow, I shared with my husband what the Lord had shown me. He too, agreed we had made a horrible mistake but he was not ready to get the reversal. After a year and a half of praying he finally submitted to what the Lord wanted. (That is a story in itself!) The devil was fighting this every step of the way. When we got to the doctor’s office parking lot my husband almost didn’t go in. I could feel the battle raging between good and evil as I waited to see if we would go in. God is faithful!! He went ahead with the surgery and 2 months later we were expecting!! We now have a beautiful 10 month old daughter. When I look at her I am reminded of God’s lovingkindness and tender mercy.
What a lovely entry, Sarah! Thanks for sharing your heart and the precious pictures 🙂
A note to Anna: Happy, Happy Birthday! May God bless you this next year as you continue to walk with Him 🙂 It was truly a delight to meet you in W-S, NC. I enjoyed our “hall talks” as I tried to stroll the baby to sleep.
What a heart-touching entry! Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures too. Aren’t they all so precious!:-)
What a sweet entry! And what precious photos! Wow…those were taken only 9 years ago and everyone is so grown up now! Makes me realize anew how quickly my little ones are growing and encourages me to make the most of every day with them as we live together for Jesus.
I praise the Lord for the work He has done in you all and thank Him for the blessing that you all are to so many!
Oh…Happy Birthday Anna! And congratulations Nathan and Melanie on your expected blessing…I’ve had you in my heart and prayers ever since we met and our family rejoiced to hear the good news!
We have friends leaning toward a vasectomy right now. I want so much to share with them this article. Thank you for linking to the Dad’s corner article. That is a wonderful testimony.
Thank you for the story you shared about your family. It is truely a blessing to my heart. You see about 5 yo we made the choice to get a vasectomy. The past year of my life I have really been struggleing w/the desire for more children(or at least put the size of our family back in the Lord’s control). I’ve been praying that my husband would change his mind and have the reversal. I feel that my prayers are slowly being answered(I feel my husband is slowly coming around to seeing the need for a reversal). I logged on here today and this is the 1st thing I saw. It brought tears to my eyes and maybe an affirmation that God’s will is for more children in our home(or at least it will all be back in God’s hands and not ours). I will continue to pray for God to change my husband’s heart and then for the means to pay for the reversal. Thank your family again for being such a blessing to my heart.
Christie
Thank you for sharing this. I am the mother of a reversal baby. My dh was married and divorced before coming to know the Lord. During that marriage, he had a vasectomy. After he came to know the Lord, and we were married, the Lord lead him to get a reversal. How the Lord worked all that is a story in itself. There was no prompting from me. I was very surprised when dh came to me and told me he believed he should have a reversal. God is Good!! Our dd was born 3 years later. She will be 11 years old this coming Tuesday, Nov. 7.
Thank you for sharing, Sarah! What a beautiful testimony to obedience to the Lord! I loved it!!!! And…Happy Be-Lated birthday, Anna!!! 🙂
In Christ,
Debi
Do you have a pattern for those WONDERFUL jumpers?
Dear Mrs. AmyKate,
Yes, I do have a pattern number. But, I’ll have to warn you ahead of time :-)! It was not an easy pattern to work with. It is Butterick B4223. I did several things like lengthen the bodice (although I would’ve done more in hindsight), added pleats in the back to most of our jumpers, and cut the front and back down :-). I think those were the major ones.
Sarah
When I read this I wept. Then I read the comments and I saw Christie’s comment. WOW!! What she said is EXACTLY where I am. What is the Lord doing? Are there more of us out there? I’m praying that God will cause a reversal in my husband’s heart and that he will go to God and repent for the vasectomy and then desire to reverse it. I’m already there. God deals with me quickly on things sometimes. Just 6 months ago if you asked me I would have said that I’m done having children and that I was pleased with our vasectomy. Not so any more. Really getting into God’s word has revealed so many things to me about my life. Even though I’m “saved” I still had a lot of weeds to pull out of my life. Praise God He is making a beautiful garden in my heart through His word and prayer. Although I still have a few “weeds” in there I’m excited for what God is doing in my life. Now I desire more children. But mostly I desire to be right with God. I also desire my husband to be right with God. Thanks again for your post. What a wonderful encouragement your family is. I’d love to know how old your parents where when they had the reversal and how old your mom was when she gave birth to the children after. Thanks.
None but Jesus,
Britta
Dear Mrs. Britta,
Thank you so much for sharing! I was very blessed by your comments.
Let’s see. My dad was probably about 37 when he had the reversal, and my mom would have been about 34 when the first reversal baby was born and 41 when the last one was born; she then had two miscarriages after that.
May Jesus move in your husband’s heart!
Blessings :-).
Sarah
Oh how I was blessed to read your family’s story of reversal. We too are a reversal family but with a different outcome. God provided me with a wonderful christian husband after I had been widowed. After a couple of years of marriage and much prayer my husband had a reversal. The surgery didn’t work for us. My husband and I had five children between us already, yet we still felt the tug of the Lord to increase our family. We told no one of our heart’s desire. We waited on the Lord and after a year someone asked us to adopt their unborn child! This happened twice more within five years. God had increased our family with three more children. Just this past February we adopted four children from Liberia, West Africa. The Lord has blessed and blessed us. That’s twelve children now ages 4-35 and eight grandchildren with one more on the way! I thank God for using a vascectomy to multiply our family!
Sarah,
I’m grieved at times by my husband and I’s decision to have a vasectomy. I’ve asked my husband several times to get a reversal, but he refuses. I pray (almost daily) that God would work on his heart. God has convicted me through your family and the Duggar family…about limiting our family size. I know that I just have to trust the Lord, and know that ultimately HE knows what is best. Thanks for sharing this story about your family!
Blessings,
Shannon