Quin-babies

I'll like to get married some day and have children - the fruit of my love with my husband.

One day, I go for a scan and the doctor congratulates my husband and I, maybe a little too joyously, and then hesitates for a brief second that would have passed if I hadn't been watching him intently, and he says, "Congratulations. You are expecting quadruplets."

WHAT!!!

My love and I falter for a moment but it is a very short moment. At the end of it, we hug each other and try to reassure each other that everything will be alright. We'll make it, even as worries about finances start piling up on our minds. We'll be good parents, and we'll provide our babies with the best of our love, even as we wonder to ourselves how we can manage four babies when we aren't even sure we can handle one.

"But it'll be alright. With God, everything is possible," we whisper to each other.

I've always thought I'll be the kind of woman who will sink into depression at some point with all the nausea I feel and the aroma of foods I had loved but which now turn me off. I thought I would feel unsexy, big and heavy.

Amazingly, none of that comes my way. After the initial panic attacks about carrying four babies, the reality sinks in and I realise (and it gives me four times the joy!!!) that I am carrying four lives within me. Four lives as a result of our love. Life is amazing. God is amazing.

I can't wait for them to arrive.

Finally, the day of the delivery is here. I am freaked out! Though I am ecstatic. Ok, I feel pain. But... (breathe), ok, I am going to do this. I can do this.

Then the doctor says, "Er... you said you were expecting quadruplets?"

"Yes....." I reply warily, a sudden urge to chew his head off rising from within me. Now, where did that come from? As suddenly as it had come, it disappears and is replaced by an emotion of love so great I feel like weeping.

"Well, Ma'am," he grins. "You're going to have quins!"

Quins??? QUINS!?!?!

+++++

"The fifth came as a surprise, but we took it in our stride," Mr Quin-Daddy said. "It's good news!"

The Quin-parents were sharing their story of how their five children came to them and how they accepted this gift and manage them, even till now.

I wonder how I would have felt if I was Mrs Quin-Mummy. I probably would have freaked out. But I hope and pray that I will accept this gift if it comes to me one day, with the same strength and grace, and to be able to recognise that in spite of looming challenges and adversity, the God who bestows such a gift is capable of gently guiding me through the obstacles as well.

I suddenly remember an old friend who has four children. He had shared that when he and his wife learnt they were going to have their fourth child, it came more as a burden and worry than as a pleasant surprise. They had contemplated not having the child but thankfully, they must have heard God's soft, encouraging reassurances.

That baby is my favourite among his four children. He is a big and strong boy. Even when he was a baby, he was heavy because he was so big! What would have happened if they had ignored God's voice? Each time I look at that boy, I say a little prayer of thanks, as I am sure my friend and his wife do too, that this gift of life had not been rejected.

One day, it may be my turn. I want to know the taste of that courage that these parents have - wonderful parents, the best parents... the best just because they had said 'yes'.

I hope to remember Mr Quin-Daddy's words when my time arrives, "Just let the blessings come."