Replies

I'll make you a deal. You reform the tax code so I can afford to stay home with a rugrat, and I'll have one.

That's just another excuse. I live in NJ for heaven's sake with two kids and not a huge paycheck. We do without and use creative budgeting. Hey, in the end, it's up to you. Personally, I'd like my kids to live among other Americans when they grow up. And I guarantee you, when you're 80 years old and alone, your niece won't darken your door too often, especially if she's one of those "selfish" modern women. I have several relatives in that position and it's truly a sad state of affairs--they desperately cling to their siblings' families because otherwise, they have nothing.

A big family is a tremendous blessing.

And I guarantee you, when you're 80 years old and alone, your niece won't darken your door too often, especially if she's one of those "selfish" modern women.

Unfortunately, having kids isn't a guarantee that they will be there for you in your dotage, either. I think it ups your odds, but by no means assures there will be someone to visit.

My parent's neighbor was a lovely old lady whose was like a grandmother to me while I was growing up. One of her kids (the good one) was a military wife whose husband was stationed in Spain, and the bad one lived about an hour east.

When she got senile the Spain woman refused to come home and the hour-away man put her in a nursing home and pretty much threw away the key. My parents were devastated - they had looked after her while she got frailer and had treated her better than her kids ever did.

As for myself, I'm planning on cash set aside, good friends, and a Smith & Wesson for when it gets really bad ;)

Agreed on all counts!

Home for 5 years now, blessed with two, and waiting to be blessed with more(I'm 33 Lord, move it along please!!LOL!)
Hubby of 7 years and I make due(and we thought we never could until the Lord taught us a lesson by my job loss;-)As a recent post of mine can attess, things get difficult, but sometimes the attitude adjustment is all mine! I started homeschooling recently and after years of wanting to do it and thinking though what a burden it would be, the scales fell from my eyes, just days ago in fact and I realized how incredibly blessed I am to be homeschooling. It is not a burden, it is just a long line of blessings God has bestowed on me. what a great privilege to marry, then have children, then stay home while they were young, and now to homeschool them to serve God.

Oh and for those thinking this is a charmed life--I came from a family of divorce where my father was super critical and my mother was a self-centered doormat for him. They still have LOTS of problems and the maternal half lives with us and is even more shallow then ever(I love her though, don't get me wrong, I just wish she'd accept Christ back in her life and let Him change her!) I had a lot to overcome and still struggle with insecurities because of it. It too made me defensive and protective of myself and self-centered. I realized feeding into that bitterness though in my teens and 20's brought me nothing but guilt and misery. When I allow it to poison my marriage it does not bring me anything but grief and pain for my husband. Since I've not let this come between me and the life God intended for me, my life has been richly blessed over and over and over again. Sometimes it takes an account of our life and what we perceive as "burdens" to understand just how blessed we really are. I'm really starting to see how things that I once thought were burdens and added responsibility really are an incredible gift and oppurtunity.