Breathing Deeply: My Life With Cystic Fibrosis

Having a baby changes the way you view your in-laws. I love it when they come to visit now. They can hold the baby and I can go out. --Matthew Broderick

This morning I got a wonderful and exciting phone call from friends of ours who recently moved to the East coast. For the last several (and no, not just 9) months we have been praying for them as they have been anticipating an addition to their family. On Sunday morning, they welcomed baby Joshua into their lives.



It seems we're standing at the threshold of a new season of life. A few years ago, our weekends were almost completely filled with weddings and bridal shower events. I remember my cousin, who was also engaged at the same time we were, commenting that "there must be something in the water" that was leading to so many couples deciding to tie-the-knot as they say. Now we're watching many of those same couples expand their families with the addition of babies.

Side note: My husband and I prefer to say "expanding their families" rather than "start a family." Family begins between two people at the altar on their wedding day.

As you may have guessed, my husband and I are not parents. The fact that I have Cystic fibrosis does indeed weigh heavily in that reality right now, however there's more to it than that. I realize that many women with CF are quite capable of conceiving and hanging in there with a full term pregnancy. I'm in such good health right now that a pregnancy likely wouldn't be a problem. It's not a matter of health. It's a matter of balance. We're not at a point in our lives where we would be well equipped emotionally, spiritually, financially, etc. to be good parents.

So many young couples don't really approach the subject of parenthood with much thought. Some decide to have a baby just because all their friends are having babies, and heck, "let's all do the same thing at the same time just like we used to in high school." They don't bathe the matter in prayer, and they think that having a baby is pretty much along the same lines as having a puppy. After all, , they're both little and cute and all you really have to do is feed them, right?

I'm excited for our friends who are new parents. I'm even more glad that they did not walk blindly into the parenthood thing. That's what makes them so much better equipped to be parents than some of my idiot high-school classmates. I've watched them and prayed with them as they have asked for God's blessing in this manner and God has seen fit to grant them the desires of their hearts.

As for myself and any spikes of baby fever, if and when that is something that God desires for us, we'll work on it then. In the meantime, I'm just doing my best to keep myself balanced enough to be a good wife and a supportive friend. That's all that needs doing today.