Crash Course Parenting – Guest Post

Today’s guest post is by Stef Layton from Layton Family Joy.  Stef went from knowing the pain of infertility to the joy of motherhood with no place to catch her bearings in between.  I hope you find her story of God’s providence encouraging and inspiring!

I never really thought about being a mom – I guess when you’re a little girl you just naturally assume that is what will happen to every little girl. All girls grow up to be mommies, right?! I had barbie dolls and cabbage patch kids – two actually – so I was very well versed in babysitting stuffed animals.

So when I was told at eighteen it was not going to be a possibility in my future I was not really sure what was left for me. I felt I had lost some value because there must have been a mistake from the manufacturer’s company. Surely all female models had functioning reproductive organs.

By design I was a woman – but with what I called “rotten guts”. I believed a lie that no man would ever want to marry me because I could not do the simplest of body functions – I could not reproduce and give him children. Although I lacked a relationship with Christ I was still aware that God told all the animals to “go forth and multiply to fill the earth”. What use was I to God?
Even when they removed endometriosis I was again informed by a “fertility specialist“ I would not have much luck getting pregnant. Due to a septated uterus (heart shaped), even if I did get pregnant I would not even be able to carry a baby to full term.

You can imagine my surprise a few years later when I found out I was pregnant. Being a mom had long passed my dreams and desires. I was 6 years behind the curve of anticipating growing a family!

What type of mom would I want to be – what were my values, my vision, my goals?! I had to figure that all out but found not crash course parenting classes just the book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

The surprise pregnancy we were told would end in a miscarriage, and then later informed a premature pregnancy really lasted 38 weeks long!

Not to put God in a box and constrain Him to just one miracle child – my second son had to be induced at 40 weeks!

My parenting training mostly consisted of late night readings and learning from many many mistakes. Mistakes of seeing my poor children’s face contort and give way to tears because I had shouted, again. Mistakes of seeing hurt feelings because I became frustrated with a slower pace. Mistakes of always saying “no” and stamping out excited dreams because I personally was not interested in seeing little hearts fly.

Seven years later – my maternal instincts definitely need to be fine tuned, but I have been given two precious gifts from the One who has always known better! And on days I feel like I do not deserve them – He reminds me – He chose them for me!

 

Stef Layton lives in Florida with her husband and their two boys. Stef is a homeschooling, thesaurus toting, knock knock joke connoisseur. Stef writes transparent experiences about her faith at Layton Family Joy and created The Homeschool Village