Giving Life

On my mom's side, I had no cousins.  Zero.  She had only one sibling, my Aunt Emmy, and she had no children.  

Of her three aunts, all had infertility issues so only one had a little son and he died at preschooler age.  No cousins for her on her mom's side either.

Knowing my Grandma Rachel's sisters--my great aunts, Mary, Blanche and Anne--had no children, and seeing how sad my mother felt for these aunts she loved, I worried.  What if, like them, I couldn't have children?

I thought about it a lot.  I was so worried that I asked for a patriarchal blessing at a young age--14.  I didn't tell anyone about my worries. But in the blessing the Patriarch pronounced "sons and daughters."  At least two of each!  I would have children! An enormous relief.

I will interject here that having our first baby was far beyond anything I dared hope for.  No matter what happened in my life, before or after, giving birth has clearly been the highlight of my life.  And each following birth has been just as miraculous as the first. Nothing is better than being their mother. I knew it then and it's true today.

Fortunately, my children also had children as they wished.  Families!

I grieve for today's world with the appalling doctrines that lure people into confusion,  cheating them out of happiness and fulfillment.  I'm looking at everything from anti-natalism to common abortion, doctrines like these:

• Life is hard--so hard it's not worth living. How can something hard be all that valuable, at any age or stage?  In fact, your parents may have done you a disservice in bringing you into this world.
• Intimacy, the act of sex, is more for recreation and entertainment than for creating families and than bonding as a couple.  No accountability should be expected from either party.  And marriage is a weird law/custom made up by men.
• The convenience of the couple far outweighs the little life they may have created together. It's meaningless, say, compared to a career.
• Life is without purpose and has no connection to a Creator.

NOPE.  No to all of it.

For what it's worth, I'm here to tell you that my children came with Spirits and personalities from a life before.  Here are three examples,  plus one from GG:

When expecting our first, I heard a lesson about spirit matter being able to recognize or connect with other spirit matter.  I don't even remember what.  But I thought, "I'm newly pregnant with this spirit.  Can my spirit contact the Spirit of this little person coming?"  As I asked, it did.  I felt a connection and I knew it was a girl and I felt her spirit.  I KNEW I did.

After three babies I hesitated about getting pregnant again so soon. We had already adopted Jake at six years of age, and we had been asked about taking a placement student. But I felt this constant nagging.  Another baby, tugging at my shirt-tail so to speak.  It was incessant.  I even got annoyed and said "Stop it!"  Within a short time I realized the nagging had stopped.  Good, I thought.  But it turns out I was already expecting. This time I knew it would be a girl again, who would be like me, kind of look like me, too--dark curly hair and freckles.  

When expecting our fifth baby, the night that labor had begun, I chose to rest on our couch so Dad could sleep until time.  I was wide awake, thinking about a story I had heard that went like this:  A little boy saw a picture of his deceased grandfather and exclaimed, "I know him." No, the relatives explained.  He was gone before you were born. "I know him," insisted the child. "He's the one who brought me here."

With that story in mind, I wondered who might escort or "bring" my child.  And in  that moment of pondering, I could "see" near me, this fine young man, escorted by someone.  This young man, my son, wanted to greet me but first he turned to his escort and got permission, and then, it was like he hugged me--our Spirits greeted each other.  I knew that he was a boy, and he was a happy spirit and he was grateful to me for giving him birth.  I never did know who his escort was, except it was a man. It was vivid and clear, so much so that when he was born in the morning and a nurse said, "It's a boy," I said, "I know." 

My mother had a similar thing happen in 1972.  She was anxious for me because I was soon to give birth far away in Alaska.  In Van Nuys, CA, as she knelt and prayed , the spirit of our unborn son visited her and told her he was coming.  She said, "It was like I gave him a blessing." And, "I knew this little boy would be born that night."  It was so vivid that she went out and moved the phone (on a cord) closer so she could answer it quickly when the call came.

Because LIFE is SACRED, I believe it's better to keep the rules of marriage before starting a family--they're not "old school" rules but "eternal" rules. I believe each life is, in fact, a personality from the time of conception. I believe life is SO worth living, every moment is precious. When Dad was dying in the hospital and his life was difficult, the Spirit bore witness to me that all life is important, even life in the rugged stages.

Furthermore, my sister MaryLu's life was SO hard that after she died, although I grieved, I was glad for her that it was over.  But the Spirit kind of chastised me.  I was wrong to think that way.  Her life mattered and was sacred in the eyes of Heaven--all of her life . 

I believe when people "take the Holy Spirit for their guide," life is better, more beautiful. We're smarter. I believe that aligning oneself with Jesus Christ is not merely gratifying, enlightening, and comforting, but it's our key purpose on Earth. We are His--each of us, and he wants us to "fill the measure of our creation" for our own happiness as well as for the joy and happiness of all involved.

Our spirits lived with our loving Heavenly Father and Mother before this life, and they planned this World and Earth Life for us, their children.  For those of us here, we are the Sacred Conduit, the ONLY WAY for each spirit to make its entrance on earth and have this long-awaited, necessary body experience.   

I'm not the sort of Grandma who hoped for grandchildren for myself, but I am the sort who hopes all of my progeny have the wonderful blessing of parenthood.

Since it was the MOST IMPORTANT hope in my life, I just assumed that hope ran in everyone's hearts.  What could be more wonderful?

Photos:  My great aunts with my Grandma Rachel (glasses.)  Cute Aunt Mary gets a smooch from Uncle Bill Martin.  Anne's only son, LaVarre, who died at age 4.  Next to last pic, the four sisters with my curly-haired mom, and her sister M.E.   Last one, my Grandma Rachel with her girls.