~~~Quiverfull 2010 !!! ~~~

[waldorfknitmama]

If there is already an active 2010 group please link me to it and disregard this post

. . . But if there isn't why not start a new one for the new year (well now it's nearly half over) so let's start!!!

I'm Samantha married for 5 years, we have two beautiful, active, funny little boys, ages 3 and 1, and we are expecting #3 in Nov. God is def. blessing our family in a big way. Just when we thought *wow wouldn't just 2 be nice?* BAM I'm pregnant! Then we starting getting nervous because of finances, and logistics of having to buy a new car (a van) and looking into buying a bigger house (we live in a 900sqf 2 bd house) hubby got a promotion! With a $20,000 pay increase! Praise the Lord! Right at the same time! We are waiting for a formal proposal so that it all goes through! But this happened the very next day we found out we are expecting! We've had a good couple of weeks!!

Anyway, if you want to join please state:

~ your name
~ family size
~ how long have you been married
~ fun or interesting facts about your self or your QF journey


Let's keep this thread alive and well

[chely7425]

Hi! My name is Rachel and we have 2 boys, T1 is 23.5 months and T2 is 9.5 months.. and we are expecting #3 in October!! Might be a bit of a madhouse with a 2.5 year old, a 16 month old and a newborn and a hubby deploying end of the year... but I am sure we will manage!! We have been married almost 3 years Not much else to say about us really

[fruitfulmomma]

Hello all. About time we get a new one huh? Guess we are all too busy with the little ones.

I am Nickey and I've been married to Lloyd for 11 years. We have five children so far. Our oldest is a 9yo boy and we have four girls ages 7, 5, 3, and 1.

We've been QF our whole marriage. I've wanted a large family my whole life but really started question the whole bc thing when I became a Christian @ 15 and this lady at church got pregnant despite using like three different methods of birth control and this was their fourth "accident". When I met hubby he pretty much agreed with me that if God says he makes babies then we ought to trust Him. So here we are.

Really praying for another one soon. Just got my period back today since the last baby, so hoping my body is gearing up and God will bless us in the coming months.

Oh, we also live in a tiny little house and will be outgrowing our vehicle with the next baby. God is always so good to us and I know He will provide.

[cappuccinosmom]

I'm Maggie/Margaret. Dh and I have been QF our whole marriage (coming up on 8 years in August). We have three wonderful boys...which means we are "the other side" of QF. We lost two babies in 2009. Dh is out of the country until August, so my "baby" will be at least 4 by the time there is another baby in the house, maybe longer. Dh and I started out only half-joking about how cool it would be to have 15, so this abscense of children is a real test of faith for us. I really do feel that there are "people missing" in our family.

But God has used this all to work on me and I have learned to be content and rejoice in the blessings he has given us.

[lilmom]

Hi wonderful ladies..
I'm Erin and I have been married almost 4 yrs. We only have 1 child. He is 2 and a half. We have been leaving it up to the Lord our whole marriage..but now we are really serious about ttc, since it hasn't happened since DS. We would love a whole houseful of little ones. I don't know how many we will be blessed with, since I am in my mid 30s right now. But we love our son, and we love the Lord, and we know whatever he decides is right. I have to admit lately we have been getting scared that that might only mean one for us. But we are praying, and believing, and trusting.

I have always known I wanted a big family, so not meeting my wonderful DH until I was 29, I knew it might not be as big as I had originally hoped. DH didn't even know that people really didn't do family planning or birth control..in his family and where he grew up, it's extremely unpopular to have more than 1 or 2 kids. But (don't laugh y'all) after he watched the Duggars with me a few times..he said "You know, we could have a whole houseful of kids" hehee...and spiritually we both just got to a place, very early in our relationship, where we wanted to trust the Lord. So there you go. I feel like the odd man out being QF with one child..but that's just my story right now.

[waldorfknitmama]

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom

I'm Maggie/Margaret. Dh and I have been QF our whole marriage (coming up on 8 years in August). We have three wonderful boys...which means we are "the other side" of QF. We lost two babies in 2009. Dh is out of the country until August, so my "baby" will be at least 4 by the time there is another baby in the house, maybe longer. Dh and I started out only half-joking about how cool it would be to have 15, so this abscense of children is a real test of faith for us. I really do feel that there are "people missing" in our family.

But God has used this all to work on me and I have learned to be content and rejoice in the blessings he has given us.

three children is alot these days!

[waldorfknitmama]

Originally Posted by lilmom

Hi wonderful ladies..
I'm Erin and I have been married almost 4 yrs. We only have 1 child. He is 2 and a half. We have been leaving it up to the Lord our whole marriage..but now we are really serious about ttc, since it hasn't happened since DS. We would love a whole houseful of little ones. I don't know how many we will be blessed with, since I am in my mid 30s right now. But we love our son, and we love the Lord, and we know whatever he decides is right. I have to admit lately we have been getting scared that that might only mean one for us. But we are praying, and believing, and trusting.

I have always known I wanted a big family, so not meeting my wonderful DH until I was 29, I knew it might not be as big as I had originally hoped. DH didn't even know that people really didn't do family planning or birth control..in his family and where he grew up, it's extremely unpopular to have more than 1 or 2 kids. But (don't laugh y'all) after he watched the Duggars with me a few times..he said "You know, we could have a whole houseful of kids" hehee...and spiritually we both just got to a place, very early in our relationship, where we wanted to trust the Lord. So there you go. I feel like the odd man out being QF with one child..but that's just my story right now.

Being QF does not mean you have to have a lot of kids---- it means trusting God to guide all areas of your life whether you have one child or twenty.

[newbiemama09]

i've always wondered, what exactly does being Quiverful entail? is it just relating to birth control based on a Christian foundation? I watched a news special on Quiverful mom's and that's the impression I got.

I myself am not a "quiverful" mom, but Dh and i use NFP to space children. we had a little *oops* last April and it got me thinking that God really IS in control of my family, so i've had a lot of different thoughts/feelings about BC lately.

TIA!

[fruitfulmomma]

i've always wondered, what exactly does being Quiverful entail?

Well, there is no official doctrine or anything, but in general it means no birth control including abstinence-based methods.

We believe that God commands fruitfulness - Gen. 1:27; is the creator of all life - Psalm 139; and that children are blessings - Psalm 127.

This site might be helpful if you want more detail http://quiverfull.com/

[jewellz]

I go by Jewellz. Married hubby in Oct. 2002, so almost 7 1/2 years ago. We have a DD-6, miscarriage at 12 weeks, DS-almost 5, DD2-almost 3, DS2-15m old and I'm 32 weeks pregnant with DD3.

I have 4 sisters and 1 brother. My parents each came from a family of 9 siblings. So big is norm for me (and loved it) But hubby is an only child and his parents only have one or two siblings. He only has 3 cousins-with no more in the future. Before we got married, we had said that we wanted about 7 children. I used BC after my dd1 and DS1 but they didn't agree with me and I had learned more about them. That's when I started on my quiverful journey.

There are times that I get overwhelmed but I just love my kids-they are just a great joy. I always wanted to be a mother ever since I was little or to be a 2nd grade teacher. I'm blessed to be a sahm. Hubby has his moments but is leaning toward more children if we have more because almost all BC methods are not acceptable to us. He gave up his "cool" car so we could get a van before we had gotten pregnant with #3 and we just went out and got a 15 passenger van last week. We need it now even though we are only just going on 7. We live with my FIL (he doesn't have too much of a problem with all of us now that we are going on child #5 and last summer he added a second story on to this house so we would have room-it was a 3 bed, 2 bath now it's a 6 bed and 4 bath with 2 laundry rooms, he loves taking the kids out shopping or visiting his parents or MIL-who's in a nursing home. He's been very helpful with me being on bedrest to go shopping for me since sister can't drive and if hubby can't pick up stuff for me.) and then my sister comes over to help me out, she actually living with us for now until August, when she wants to go to Africa to help at the orphanages and other missionary type work (she's so awesome-a real blessing) and then my youngest two sisters come over to visit sometimes and stays the night. In fact they are here right now because they are on spring break. So that fills up the van fast. And now we have room for more expansion.

We have been blessed but it's not all fun and games, seems that every pregnancy or just after I and my kids get some sort of serious health problem. With my 1st at 37 week I got gallbladder attacks and at 38 weeks she was induced because they didn't know that that was causing the pain. After birth had to go on a low fat diet to keep attacks away. At 5m postpartum I got pregnant and miscarried that little one at 12 weeks-gallbladder was getting worse and they took it out. Then when our 1st was 1 year decided to try again, got preggers right away-had to get many ultrasounds to monitor his hydronephrosis-enlarged kidneys. Had DS. Started feeling sick and tired and depressed a few weeks after his birth. Turned out to be postpartum thyroiditis (which is now life-long medication for me-levels go way up and way down after each birth) Went on BC again and when son was 1 year-(after his 12m vaccines became high functioning autistic, needed early intervention until 3 years old then speech therapy, still symptomatic but getting better because off gluten) went off BC to try again, got pregnant right away again. Threatened preterm labor at 31 weeks, bed rest until 36 weeks. Born the day before due date. She was born dead because the cord was wrapped around her neck-had to go into me to cut the cord but was revived. She was fine up until the pushing and it seemed like she took forever to come out-even thought pushing out my sons were very fast. Trauma from the birth or something like that led to all of us being self diagnosed as gluten intolerant with the kids pediatrician backing us up. A few weeks after she was born she started getting colicky, turns out she was reacting to the dairy in my breastmilk until she outgrew them at 9m old, so had to learn to eat without dairy first-I breastfed her til she was 14m old-then learned about the gluten intolerance and had to take gluten out of all our diets. When she was 10m old (was quiverful by then) I got pregnant with dc#4. His pregnancy was ok but birth was awesome-born after just 4 1/2 hrs from first contraction to birth and my first drug free birth-(tried to do it with #3 but got to 7cm and asked for meds.) So it was awesome. He turned out to have reactions to the dairy in my breastmilk and had to cut it out again. When he was 5 months old, got my period back and my milk suffered, tried to get it back up but his health went downhill then kept trying to build the milk up but he wasn't gaining enough and not making milestones and getting dehydrated so when he was 9m old I had to put him on specialized formula and he did alot better, although at 9 months he had started reacting to eggs too and still to any dairy-which he still reacts to today at 15m old. But I got pregnant when he was 8 months old. Decided I'd had enough of prenatals and drs so wanted to do minimal tests and visits that I would just do self-monitoring this pregnancy but when I was 23 weeks pregnant had to go to hospital in severe pain, turned out to be kidney stones. Got stint put in, two weeks later went to get it pulled and it had moved up, then surgery was scheduled at 27 weeks. Had surgery and the next day went into labor. It was stopped and now I'm on strict bedrest with midwife visits every two weeks to make sure nothings happening down there. I'm also dealing with a strict diet of no gluten or dairy and very minimal eggs or soy in hope that DD3 will not react when we introduce it later on when she's ready for it. I'm praying that I can breastfeed her longer then 12 months.

Anyway we are blessed and I still believe in letting God decide our family even with all the health issues. I don't feel our family is yet done-in fact before this one was conceived there was one day where I was looking around at my kids trying to figure out when one of them had gone when I realized that they were all there-you know that feeling that your family's not done yet, got that feeling that day. Also had a dream that we going to have a few more too.

So that's our story, sorry so long, wanted to explain a bit more about us. Hope you enjoyed it and if anyone has questions, just ask. I loved being subscribed to the old quiverful thread, lots of awesome ladies on there and hoping I'll enjoy this one as much.

[hdeering]

I'm Holly. DH and I've been married for almost 6 years now. We've come to a rather quiverful conviction through infertility. We have 2 kids, and we're working to adopt them from foster care. Xander is 3.5 and Lorelei is 1.

I'm from a large-ish family of 6 and my parents were rather quiverful- they just used natural spacing through breastfeeding, but it put the kids at 3 years apart. My husband is from a divorced home and has a total of 4 siblings (2 step, 2 bio). It was a radical change for my husband, but he's really come around.

It really grates on a couple when so many are "preventing blessings" while you're desperately hoping for just one. I guess that's what brought my husband to the QF conviction.

We're praying for more kids whether through adoption or birth. Or even embryo adoption. We don't know what God has in store, but we have a van that seats 8! So we'll be filling it up if God wills.

[newcastlemama]

I am Jen and I have been married to dh 7 years. We have a 5.5yo ds and a 25 month old dd. (I had a 13 weeks m/c in between)

I would love to have a large family but so far no pp peroid since I had dd 25 months ago! (I am 29 yo) So we will see what happens. We also want to adopt through foster care so we will see what the Lord does with all those desires.

Anyway, I took BC pills the first 2 months we were married, read more about them and quit. dh did not want to start having children for 5 years (!) but I really wanted to have babies and not use bc so I started praying and found out I was pregnant when we were married 10 months. To make a long story short, dh and I are in agreement as of last year that the Lord is in control and children are a blessing..I really prayed and the Lord changed his heart

I really like acknowedging the Lord's control. I feel so much more freedom and peace! It all makes sense now about why I was leary of birth control in my heart when I first married but could not figure out why (I was only a Christian 1.5 years when I got married). Also, I did not know anyone else who felt the way that I did so I just figured I was wrong about the issue.

[newcastlemama]

Oh, thanks for starting a thread!

I found this cool blog recently you mamas might enjoy!
http://lutheransandcontraception.blogspot.com/

[lilmom]

Originally Posted by waldorfknitmama

Being QF does not mean you have to have a lot of kids---- it means trusting God to guide all areas of your life whether you have one child or twenty.

Thanks Samantha..I know this. I just meant that many QF families DO have lots of kids, and I don't. So alot of times people are shocked to hear me say I am QF or that we don't use birth control, etc., because we still only have one child. It just makes me feel like I don't quite fit in at times anywhere, because people assume we are preventing, but we are not.

[lmevans]

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom

I'm Maggie/Margaret. Dh and I have been QF our whole marriage (coming up on 8 years in August). We have three wonderful boys...which means we are "the other side" of QF. We lost two babies in 2009. Dh is out of the country until August, so my "baby" will be at least 4 by the time there is another baby in the house, maybe longer. Dh and I started out only half-joking about how cool it would be to have 15, so this abscense of children is a real test of faith for us. I really do feel that there are "people missing" in our family.

But God has used this all to work on me and I have learned to be content and rejoice in the blessings he has given us.

I'll post an intro in a minute, but I couldnt walk away from this without saying that I fought back tears after reading the part I bolded. That is EXACTLY how I feel.

Okay, going to read some more but I'll be back, I promise!!

Michelle

[Kidzaplenty]

Hey, I am here

~ your name:
I am Jenny, my husband is Bryan

~ family size:
I am mother of nine children born live, one born still, one miscarried, and one taken far too young; leaving eight here on earth and seven still within my home (oldest is now on her own).

They are Sarah, 20 years; Jessica, 15 years; Seth, 13 years; Hannah, 12 years; Nathaniel, 9 years; Gideon, 6 years; Isaiah, 20 months; Isaac, 3 months; and Gabbie would have been 8 years this year.

~ how long have you been married
We have been married for almost 21 years now.

~ fun or interesting facts about your self or your QF journey
We are QF, but just kinda "fell" into it. As in, we never "adopted" a certain mindset just found that what we do believe happens to "fit" into what most QFers believe. Before I had my fifth, I had never even heard the term.

I have never felt that "children missing" feeling that many here talk about. Well, with the exception of my Gabbie that was within my arms for far too short a time before she was taken. So, I love children and I would be happy to add a new life to our home; but, I am not now, nor ever have been trying to add it. That would go against our beliefs of leaving it up to God, totally and competely.

I am just as happy to not have another baby as I would be to have one. I am strange, I know!

Anyways, so that is us.

[Rodeo Mama]

I'm Amanda, married to Andrew for 6 years. We have 3 little ones-ds1 is 4, dd is 2.5, ds2 is 6 weeks. I was on bc when we got married and got pregnant anyway, the week after our honeymoon. I miscarried at around 6 weeks. After that I researched bc a bit further and we prayed about it and decided to stop preventing just before our first anniversary. DH is the 2nd of 9 kids, I only have one sibling.

Three kids are a lot these days. I can't believe how many times since we got pg w/ ds2 I have heard people ask if we're done now, or say "this is the last one, right??". One super sweet woman from our small group at church asked if we planned to have more, so I explained our convictions to her and I was so shocked when she said I was on the right track and that her heart was grieved for the blessings she had missed out on because of her choices. I just love her to pieces...our whole small group at church is so wonderful and supportive.

[cappuccinosmom]

I have never felt that "children missing" feeling that many here talk about. Well, with the exception of my Gabbie that was within my arms for far too short a time before she was taken. So, I love children and I would be happy to add a new life to our home; but, I am not now, nor ever have been trying to add it. That would go against our beliefs of leaving it up to God, totally and competely.

I never had that feeling until after our first loss, actually.

I was making sure i had all my boys, and after I counted the three boys, I kept looking around feeling that there *had* to be one I wasn't counting.

[newcastlemama]

Originally Posted by Rodeo Mama

Three kids are a lot these days. I can't believe how many times since we got pg w/ ds2 I have heard people ask if we're done now, or say "this is the last one, right??".

Since we have a boy and a girl people also assume that we are done.

cappuccinosmom-s I had a miscarriage with our middle baby but the other day ds (5 yo) said "Won't it be great to play with our baby when we get to Heaven" I had to really hold back tears because it is so true.

[cappuccinosmom]

i've always wondered, what exactly does being Quiverful entail? is it just relating to birth control based on a Christian foundation? I watched a news special on Quiverful mom's and that's the impression I got.

That's how I would define it. The term is directly from Ps. 127.

It should be noted, though, that the word is being somewhat redefined, and a lot of people now associate it with hyper-patriarchal fundamentalism. There's a blog I read regularly about coming out of spiritual abuse in a fundamentalist group, and she always attaches QF to the name of the group, as if they were one and the same.

What's odd, though, is that probably a majority of those who would be called "fundamentalist" are not QF, and will argue strongly for birth control. Some of the most viscious objections to QF I've ever run across are from fellow Evangelical Christians who think it's "stupidity" or "foolishness" and who themselves participate in mocking families like the Duggars.

And on the flip side of that, QF families vary so widely on other beliefs, including the patriarchy/complementarianism/egalitarianism that the broad brush painting from detractors really annoys me.