Raising Daughters

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a mommy. I was a little girl who loved playing with baby dolls. I would dress them, change them, feed them their bottles, and carry them with me wherever I would go. I remember receiving a baby doll that looked like a real newborn, and carrying him around with pride as we would go from store to store. I never pictured what my future family would look like, but I always hoped that I would have children one day.

As a teenager, I was involved in several activities. I played sports, was very involved in my youth group, and loved socializing with my friends. However, one of my very favorite things to do was babysit for a family who had three sweet little boys. Their family was like my own. I started keeping the boys around the age of 14, and continued to do so through college. They were like little brothers to me. I went on family vacations with them, to their school events, sporting events, and helped them with homework. I would take them out for pizza, to the mall, shopping for their favorite toy, or wherever else they desired to go. I absolutely adored them, and still do! They are amazing.

Because I was an athlete, and spent the majority of my teenage years watching those three precious boys, I would have told others before I had children that I was more of a "boy mom." My husband and I both loved playing sports and watching sports. I was never a girly girl, and loved the idea of spending an entire Saturday at the ballpark. I was more comfortable with the idea of raising boys than girls. However, I always had a gut feeling that I would eventually become a mommy to a little girl.

My dream of becoming a mommy came true, and my family is now complete. As time would tell, my gut feeling was right. However, I wasn't given the opportunity to become a mommy to just one little girl, I was blessed with three beautiful, precious baby girls. Each one is unique in her own way, and they all three bring so much joy to my life. My days are full of tea parties, playing with baby dolls, painting toe nails, and dressing up. However, my girls also fill my days with digging in dirt, searching for treasures, taking walks in the woods, and playing ball in the backyard.

When the girls and I are out and about during the day, I often get stopped to discuss them. I get comments about their cute outfits, the bows in their hair, the shoes they are wearing, the drama that my future holds, those dreaded teenage years, and the fact that I need to start saving for three weddings. And just as most mommies of all girls probably experience, I rarely end a conversation without being asked, "So, are you going to try for a boy?"

After I became a mommy, I quickly realized that there was so much more to girls than just sugar, spice and everything nice. Having three daughters, to me, is a calling. God prepared me, my heart, my soul, from the very beginning, to be the mommy to these three little girls. He created each one of them with my husband and I in mind. He prepared us to raise them, to love them, support them, encourage them, and prepare them for their future. As their mommy, I am not just raising three daughters. I am possibly raising three wives, three mommies, three aunts, three sister-in-laws, three grandmothers, three great grandmothers. I am raising three precious girls who have the opportunity to impact a lot of lives after my own. I am called to pray for their husbands, their children, their grandchildren. It is my husband's and my responsibility to not only prepare them for their lives on this earth, but for their lives in eternity.

My hope is that I rely on God to raise my girls according to His purpose. My desire is to teach them about having a personal relationship with Christ, and preparing them to teach their children that as well. I feel called to love them well, encourage them, support them, and teach them that their security should be found not in those around them, or what the world may deem as important, but in Christ alone. I pray for the wives that they may become. May they love their husbands well, submit to them, support them, remain faithful to them, and pray for them. I pray for the mommies that they will become. May they fully rely on God to raise their own children, teach them about having a personal relationship with Christ, love them, support them, and have confidence in themselves as they raise their children.

As a mommy to three girls, I feel responsible to pray for their husbands. May those three precious boys know how much they are loved, cherished, adored by their Heavenly Father. May their hearts be prepared to love my girls as Christ loved the Church, may they have the knowledge to raise their own children, to love them and support them, to teach them how cherished they are. May those boys grow into men who not only succeed in whatever career they choose, but love what they do. I pray for those boys like they are my own, as they will one day become a huge part of my daughters' lives.

So to answer the question about trying to have a little boy, I would say "no." Of course, my answer has nothing to do with not wanting a little boy. I would be just as honored to raise a son, and I believe just as fulfilled. However, I know that, for now, God has called me to something different. For some reason, He prepared me to raise three daughters, and I am honored that He has called me to do this job. And as fun as shopping for cute clothes, putting bows in their hair, and painting toe nails is, I know that those are just experiences that go alongside raising daughters. However, it isn't what raising daughters is all about.