Summing it Up

I came across a quote today that I just had to share. It was posted on a blog I follow, and completely sums up what I have been feeling for so long...

"There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child - and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own."
-Robert Brault

Through the subtleties of our society and culture, most women are raised to desire a husband and a family. As little girls we play with dolls, we make believe, we watch Cinderella, we dream about our futures, we plan. But aside from the ways in which we're raised, many women desire these things on a very instinctual level. As humans, we're designed in God's image. We're designed for love. And as women, we're designed to bring forth life. It's instinct. It's nature. It's the way God created us, and it's ridiculously amazing when you think about it. It's just not a guarantee.

My instincts as a woman tell me to keep striving for pregnancy. That no child will be quite like my own. That nothing could compare to a little person that is half me and half my husband. But my instincts as a human, as an adopted daughter of God, tell me otherwise. And those are the instincts I hold tightly to these days.

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
-Isaiah 43:5-7