In 2002 I was kept rather busy being a Mum of 5 children, who were homeschooled – a full on job. The neighbourhood kids loved coming to our house after school and weekends, which I encouraged. I was busy with music in our church and active in encouraging the local kids to come to youth group. So having another child was definitely not on the agenda.
I had no intention of getting pregnant. But it only takes once, eh. So when I missed a period, and then another, I thought I must be starting menopause. Off to my GP I went and told him that I thought I was starting menopause. “Are you sure you’re not pregnant?” he asked. “Don’t be silly,” I responded. “Nevertheless,” he replied. “I’d like to rule it out.” So off I went to the toilet to get him a urine sample. He did the test there at his desk. After a couple of minutes I said,: “Well, it’s negative, isn’t it?” He hesitated. “Na, it’s positive. You’re pregnant.” I was shocked, even distressed: “How do I go home and tell my 66 year old husband we are having another child – number 6.”
I was 44 at the time. My GP hesitated, then said to me, “You wouldn’t consider a D&C (effectively a termination) would you?” He knew I was a Christian, but could see I was shocked by the news. “No way,” I replied. “I’ll cope with whatever God gives me.” I drove home, very nervous. I went inside and shut the sliding glass door to the back room so I could talk to my husband without the kids hearing me. They were guessing on the other side of the door that I was pregnant. I nervously told my husband we were expecting another baby.
“How did that happen?” he asked. “You’ve got 5 already, I think you know the answer to that,” I replied. “But aren’t you taking precautions?” he threw back at me. “Well no, not exactly,” I replied. Then I explained why I had been sleeping on the lounge so much – to try to avoid falling pregnant, because I hated taking the pill. So through the pregnancy I battled. Doctors found in my first pregnancy that I had heart problems so it was a very difficult nine months each time but we battled through with the Lord’s help and strength and much love and support from family and my church family and friends. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful little girl, much to our son’s distress, who now had five younger sisters. She is adored by her parents and her older siblings. We can’t imagine life without her. She’s now 16 years old. I tell her she wasn’t a mistake. God doesn’t make mistakes. She was a surprise. A precious gift from our heavenly Father. Imagine if we’d gone with the short term solution – termination – because the pregnancy wasn’t “planned.” In fact, only 2 out of my 6 pregnancies were planned. Yet I can’t imagine killing that precious life growing inside me.
- Robyn Colburn lives in western NSW