I told you a few nights ago a little about my life and have introduced myself to you but tonight I want to introduce you to our children and my greatest blessing.

I have always loved children and before Mark and I married I wanted 6 children. My most lively and hardest to handle child was born first so then we lowered our desire of children to just 2. God had a much different plan in store.

We found out just 3 weeks beforehand that we were having twins for our second pregnancy. We had already made a cute little nursery in our home and everything was all set and then twins showed up! Whew! As I said, the first child was a handful and then we had twins when Danny had just turned 3. Danny had been the very first grandchild on both sides of our family and his little world was totally rocked when the twins came along…..plus they were girls!

When Danny was born Mark was still in the Air Force and I was a stay at home mom. We moved back to Livingston in 1976 and I went to work at Berkline and Danny stayed with a babysitter for the very first time at the age of 18 months. When the twins were born I was working at Union Bank. I had to return back to work at the bank when the twins were 6 weeks old. We had scurried around trying to find babysitters for all of the children but nothing was working out and I really needed to work as we had bought our first home and had lots of bills.

Nearing the end of the 6 week period I went to the bank officials and asked if I could come into work an hour earlier than everyone else and leave an hour earlier than the others. Mark had been working as a welder but had gotten laid off and he had landed a job in Cookeville at Dacco but it was second shift. The bank officials agreed for me to do this and Mark stayed with the kids during the day and as soon as I got home from work I was there with them until he returned home after 11 pm at night. A lot of afternoons Mark would be backed up in the carport of our house with the engine running and I would pull into the drive and he would pull out and we would wave at each other in passing.

Our fourth child came along when Danny was 7 and the twins were 4. Danny had been rooted out of his position of all the attention from the family and he longed for a brother. He even prayed for a brother.

While we were at the hospital having Matthew, my Mom kept the 3 older kids and she taught them this Bible verse because the new baby was going to be named Matthew which means “a gift from God”:

Matthew 7 verse 7…….Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you….. (KJV)

We had our four children, 2 boys and 2 girls. I felt complete!

The other day I heard a sermon and instead of saying they were blessed the person said they were gifted. I have thought a lot about that. I believe that God gifted me with a lot of things since birth and I will explain.

I was gifted with tons of energy. I was gifted with 2 living grandmothers that stepped in and helped raise us three kids, I was gifted to learn at a very young age how to cook, clean, and sew. I was gifted to learn a strong work ethic. I was gifted to respect the elderly and the feelings of other people. I was gifted to have an uncle that was the most patriotic person I have known. I was gifted to know and reverence God…..the list goes on and on. You see, I believe that God was setting me up from birth to be the person that I am today. My only desire in life was to be a wife and a mother. I had no desire to go to college or land an awesome career. I have always worked but pretty much left the job there in the afternoons when I walked out the door.

God had his hand on my life and prepared me and gifted me in a way that later I could handle having 4 children, handle having very little money, needing all that energy, handle having 3 men in my family that were soldiers, and needing God desperately to lead me.

I am so very thankful for God caring enough about me to gift me with all of that knowledge and instinct to do the things needed to raise the 4 blessings that He gave us.

In the picture above it is L to R, our youngest son Matthew. Next is our twin daughter Rachel and then our twin daughter Melinda, and to the far right is our oldest son, Danny.

One time years ago at church an elderly lady told me that most large families always have one ugly duckling in the bunch but she said that all of our kids were beautiful. I feel that way too. All four were so different but so unique and each special in their own way. I always encouraged each of them to be the person that God created them to be and if that meant walking to the beat of a different drum then so be it. Even the twins were encouraged to be individuals.

I could have gone to college, I could have striven to land a high paying job and live in a fine home but all of that was never important to me. I am not knocking it but it was just not my priority.

My greatest blessing in my life has been to have these 4 children and to be gifted by God to be their mother. Time has passed so quickly and now they are all grown and I am a grandmother and really cherishing that role. God has been so good!

So if you are reading this and you have a passel of children and you don’t feel so special then believe me, someday you will look back and see your greatest blessing as I have!