Eight is Great!

If you ended up here, then you must be a little curious….

or you want to see just how crazy we are…..or both!

Yes, that's right baby Luke!! 

You're not going to be the baby anymore! You're going to be a big brother!! 

Caldwell child #6 is on the way, scheduled to be here in late January 2020. 

 Caldwell, party of 8.

 Eight is great. 

That’s going to be our new motto!

So let me just go ahead and answer your first two questions 😀 yes, Zack and I do understand how babies are made, and no, we weren’t  trying to conceive 😄 
So this baby is very unexpected, but such a blessing to think that God would entrust us with another precious child. As Psalm 127 says, “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them”. I think ours is filling up!

Many thoughts went through my mind the day I held the pregnancy test in my shaking, trembling hand! I must admit,  that one of my first thoughts upon finding out that I was pregnant was “What are people going to think??!!” I worried that we might be seen as irresponsible? Weird? Crazy?  What would our explanation be?  I felt like we had to have an explanation. This must have been an accident, something must have failed, etc. As my mind was reeling and thoughts were racing, it was then I realized, I don’t need to explain a miracle such as this. When God chooses to create a life, to God be the Glory! He is the giver, and taker of life (Genesis 2:7, Job 34:14-15).  All life is extremely valuable and precious to Him. I began to wonder, why does it seem that our modern culture no longer values and beholds life as the great and amazing creation it is? I fear that often times  we come to see children as more of an inconvenience and surprise pregnancies as more of an "oops” than a life intricately created by our Heavenly Father. I speak these words to myself, as  it was something that I was forced to think about when I found out I was pregnant this time. I had to search my own heart and ask myself, do I really value life the way God does?

I have always unashamedly been pro-life.  As an adopted child and an adoptive parent, and believing that God knew us before He formed us in the womb, (Jeremiah 1:5) I believe life to be precious in all forms. But if I claim to truly be pro-life, then I must hold to that belief at all times. When life is “planned”, and “unplanned”. When the timing seems to make sense, and when the timing doesn’t seem to make sense. The value of life isn’t dependent upon circumstances.  I must confess that in years past, I have observed families with multiple children and at times wondered why they would choose to have so many children- maybe even thought they were a little “different”. I was tempted to think of things from a very worldly perspective. But as the Lord began to lay on our hearts to add more children to our family through adoption, and now with the addition of Luke and our new baby, God has began to  teach me through His Word and through my daily interactions with my own children just how much He values life. I am grateful He is so patient and willing to remind me of the things that I should already know. He is a merciful Father.

Please don’t hear me say that we have don’t have any doubts, anxiety or concerns about what adding another baby to our family will mean- we certainly do! Do we feel overwhelmed? Yes! Our lives are very full with our 5 precious children. It is hard to imagine how life will work with a new baby. Do we feel anxious? Yes. I especially worry that the new baby will sleep like baby Luke and I’ll be a zombie for several months all over again!  I wonder if my body can sustain another pregnancy so close to the first, the toll it will take, etc. Do we wonder how everyday things will work? Yes! I worry about how I will spend enough time with our big kids, help them with their homework, watch them play sports, keep the house clean, keep up with the laundry, etc.  Yes to all of these and more!

 But then we ask ourselves the most important questions: Is God the author and creator of all life? Yes. Before He formed us in the womb, did He know us? Yes. Is He faithful and trustworthy? Yes.  Does He loves us? Yes. To every doubt, objection and fear I have, comes a resounding “yes” from the eternal, uncreated, holy and loving God. 

Praise Jesus.   

God has also given us some very tangible displays of his mercy as we have adjusted to being a family of 7, and now soon to be to a family of 8.  We have four awesome big kid helpers that have really stepped it up over the last 9 months, and we know they will be up for the challenge. I can’t say enough about what a huge help they have been. It has been a beautiful thing to see God work in each one of their hearts, helping them to become little servants and more selfless as they help care for their baby brother.  Not perfect, by any means. There are many days that we have to have a family meeting because the kids have been so mean to one another, or haven’t honored their parents like they should.  It's not a pretty picture some days.  God will undoubtedly have to continue to work in all our hearts as we welcome and prepare for the new baby.

Another display-thankfully, just a few weeks ago, sweet baby Luke began to sleep for about 9-10 hours at a time, finally, at almost 9 months of age. It was a long time coming, and took a lot of praying, crying, reading,  ordering from Amazon and returning products that are supposed to help your baby sleep, etc. but I think God’s timing was just right. If I had found out I was pregnant while Luke was still sleeping about 4 hours at a time, that would have been extremely difficult!!  God’s grace to us is never ending.

And we would be amiss if we failed to mention the unending support that our parents have given us. God in his mercy allowed us to move back home to Kentucky, and I can’t imagine what life would have been like if we hadn’t. We simply couldn’t have thrived without the help of our parents. We would have barely been surviving and our big kids would have suffered greatly. Our parents have time and time again helped take our children to practices, performances, given us breaks so we could sleep, helped with our laundry, spent time loving on our kiddos,  given the kids breaks from one another and the list goes on and on.  It truly does take a village! It’s also the beauty of family and the body of Christ in action.

Being a parent has truly been the most sanctifying experience of my life.  To be very honest, we never planned on having 6 children. But, life doesn’t always work out liked we planned, and for that, I am very thankful.  My plans could never equate to the greatness of God’s plans. Though it might stretch our comfort zone, grow our faith, takes us to distant lands, and at times cause our hearts to break more than we could have imagined, if we believe in God’s sovereignty, then we must trust His plans. And in doing so, we see how He is conforming us to the image of His Son, even through the long days and sleepless nights, well, especially through those. With each child God has graciously added to our family, parenthood has truly shown me just how in need of God’s grace and mercy I am, on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. It has also shown me a glimpse of the amazing love, patience, and goodness that God has for his children.  

Please keep our family and this new life in your prayers. It will definitely be a transition, in every sense of the word. We need God’s wisdom, grace, and mercy to cover us every day. We pray our family will bring glory to God, even if it means we might look different, bigger and crazier than “normal” families.

 After all, eight is great!