I am a cradle Catholic, but only became truly aware of NFP back in 2001. Until then, I am ashamed to say, my husband and I used ABC, except while we tried to conceive our first child, born in 1998 (we married in 1995). In late 2000, dh left the military and we moved to Oklahoma. I never refilled my prescription, and that was okay with us, because we were planning on another child (at that point, we said 2 was our limit).
In the fall of 2001, I became involved with Project Gabriel through my parish in Oklahoma. In my training, I received information about NFP and a copy of 'Humanae Vitae.' Well, soon after that I bought a copy of the Kippley's book, and two months later, I was pregnant with our son, who was born in September of 2002. It was at that point that we became open to having a larger family.
Shortly after our son's first birthday, we were surprised with pregnancy number three (looking back, it was more of an error in my charting than anything). In June of 2004, our second daughter was born.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year. My charting has not been as consistent over the last several months, but I am fairly regular and knew when the fertile times were. Last month all three kids and I were sick with the norovirus, which I believed threw everything out of whack for me, although I did not realize it at the time. Two weeks ago, we were given another blessing when we found out about baby #4, due this October. Our oldest is thrilled at having another sibling, and our son is asking when he can play cars and dinosaurs with his baby brother (he is convinced it is a boy!).
I know it's a long post, but if were not for NFP, I would only have the two children we had 'planned' to have. I cannot imagine life without our younger daughter, who is just precious (although she has been nicknamed 'the little banshee' by her father and me). The last two pregnancies have not proved that something went wrong, but that something went right.
I will also note that the people in our parish are thrilled to hear of our good news, as larger families seem to be pretty common here.
Yes, money is going to be tighter, but we are going to have those precious memories of first steps, first words, and other milestones that money can't buy :)
I have a couple of children that I'm not sure how they happened, too. Oh well! I wonder if it's significant that I know when the boys were conceived, but not the girls?
I suppose if I find I'm expecting #9, saying "When did this happen?" then it will be a girl!
I can't believe the similarities in our stories!
We also married in 1995 and used ABC for the first few years. I went to a class at church that connected the pill as an abortificient. I had no idea at the time! I cried all night and never took another one. Our first child was born 10 months later in 1998. We had marital problems after his birth and nearly separated. After a marriage counselor told us we should just get a divorce, I signed us up for classes.
We had just begun the class on NFP when we found out about our second child, born in 2000. We used it successfully for years. Although I had a few miscarriages, the pregnancies were planned and then avoided as needed.
Our third child came 5 years after the last in 2005 and are expecting the fourth in August. After 6 pregnancies you'd think I'd be able to recognize when I was pregnant. I was 8 weeks along before I figured it out this time. I guess we just got caught up in Christmas and wasn't paying attention. LOL!
Money has always been an issue with us. If we had waited until we could "afford" them, we'd still be childless! I'm a much better person since having kids. I have learned to live simply and frugally. It truly is a blessing!