A Baby and a Raise!

My husband and I married in 1979 after a four year courtship. We didn't use birth control because we both longed for a child. It was five long years before the Lord granted our prayers and blessed us with a little girl. Two years later we received another precious girl. After that, for six long years, I didn't get pregnant again!

At the end of October 1992 we attended a Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar. Our children were now eight and six years and we had a 12-year-year-old foster son. Bill Gothard showed scriptures that proved that children come from God. We prayed from this perspective that evening and by the first of December, I was pregnant!

We had no money and no extra room for another child, yet we knew that God would provide, and provide He did! Little by little, as friends became aware that I was expecting, they would ask me if I needed baby clothes, or a crib, or some other item for the baby. By the time our Hannah was born, we had every item we needed and had not spent a penny! The only baby item we bought was a small car seat, but found out that evening that Denny's mother was going to buy one for us. We got ahead of the Lord on that one!

When Hannah was six months old, Denny got a promotion and a raise and we moved to Florida to a bigger home with plenty of room. When Hannah was 10 months old, we found we were expecting again. We were struggling financially again with the cost of living in Florida. However, within a few months of Tricia's birth, Denny once again got a raise! God's timing is perfect.

We are praying for another baby even now and know beyond any doubt that should the Lord choose to bless us again, that He will provide more than we can imagine.

We celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary in August 1996. With two long periods of infertility, we know all too well that the Lord grants children or withholds them for His glory. We don't take for granted for one minute that we'll have more. We know it is completely in His hands.

SAMANTHA SMITH

Casselberry, Florida, USA.

Here are the names of Denny and Samantha's arrows. They love to tell everyone their full names: April Eleanor Margaret (12), Stephanie Suzanne Sarah (9), Hannah Leigh Harriett (2) and Tricia Ilene Melody (1). Their foster son is now living with his mother and doing very well.