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Natasha Metzler

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Infertility

How I was surprised by motherhood

I had always planned on motherhood. On middle-of-the-night feedings, hauling around car seats, wiping up spit-up, learning to change diapers one-handed. I studied all the tricks on getting littles to eat vegetables and the easiest ways to swaddle.

I was a teacher by nature. I learned the best by teaching others and motherhood seemed like the perfect fit. In teaching my children to know God, I would know Him better. Motherhood would please both Him and me.

The truth is that motherhood looked a certain way to me.

It involved a wedding and a 9-12 month wait. It involved a midwife and labor and a fresh squalling infant.

It didn’t involve a hormone crash, and years of silence. It didn’t involve a miscarriage and dreams that burned to ashes in my heart.

And because motherhood looked different than I expected, I almost missed it.

Oh, thank you, God, that You didn’t let me miss it. 

How I was surprised by Motherhood #infertility #PainRedeemed

I almost missed the fourteen-year-old boy who stuttered and stared at his hands when he talked. The boy whose home was empty of God and true love, who sought hope at my kitchen table. I served him coffee and he dumped in sugar and slowly, as the mug warmed his hands and time warmed his heart, he started looking up.

Eventually he began calling me, “Ma.”

And even though he left every evening and sometimes I wouldn’t see him for weeks at a time, he brought motherhood into my life. The hard kind. The kind where you pray and cry for the salvation of your child, where you fight off the enemy on his behalf, so his soul can rest and breathe in truth.

—

I almost missed the red-headed five-year-old and his baby brother who needed a safe place to grow. The children whose parents had been through so much hurt and pain, they struggled to keep their heads above water, let alone take the time to teach their children.

And for years they came into my house, day after day, and taught me how to be a mom. I told them the story of Jesus, over and over again, and they taught me how to open my eyes wide and see the wonder of farm life. They brought me Mother’s Day cards that said, “You’re the best part-time Mom EVER,” and I kissed their noses and squeezed them tight.

And I learned the joyful part of motherhood, where the children make you laugh with their wittiness, rejoice when they learn new things, and smile softly when they come to you for healing and help.

—

I almost missed the little boy who drained so much out of me. The one who appeared in my life when I least expected it and required every bit of energy I had. The little boy who just needed to be loved on. Day after day after day.

He was the child who didn’t know how to love back. Who struggled to form words that weren’t broken or hate-filled. Who would rather starve than eat anything except microwave popcorn, which was inconvenient since we had no microwave. He pulled and pushed every button I had and then sat there, eyes wide, expecting me to scream or throw things or cuss him out.

And I learned how motherhood hurts. How loving is required, even when your child fights you at every turn. How being a mother means tearing open your heart and absorbing the pain, without putting any expectations on the child to make it easier. It’s you standing in the gap for them, teaching and loving and showing Jesus– over and over, even when they stomp on your love and throw the food you made them on the floor you just washed, and scream that they hate you.

—

I almost missed the motherhood that came with all the little ones who traipsed through my house. The ones who taught me bone-deep lessons on faithfulness, true love, and grace.

I thought I would learn to know God more through teaching my children about Him, but I actually learned to know Him best by experiencing motherhood in a new way.

I learned to see the God who takes brokenness and builds beauty. I learned to embrace the goodness of a God who lets us wander in the desert, so we can truly know what Living Water tastes like. I learned that this God, the one I don’t always understand, is willing to pick up all the pieces of a life that implodes, and carefully form redemption out of the pain. 

The God who turns the barren woman into the heart-mother of nations. 

Motherhood surprised me. It shook me to my core. It arrived in my life when I least expected it, while I was crying over not being able to experience it, and I almost missed it.

Thank you, God, that I didn’t. 

 

For more inspiration: True Mother-Love Belongs To More Than Just Mothers

 

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  • Faith in Life and Death (and infertility)
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Comments

  1. Cass says

    December 29, 2014 at 8:59 am

    This is exactly what God is beginning to show me! He is opening my eyes to see those around me who already have mothers, but still need motherly love. I pray that God will enlarge my heart so that I can provide that selfless love to many.

    Reply
  2. sierravbrock says

    May 12, 2014 at 12:55 pm

    Wow! I started following your blog just a few weeks ago…this is the best that I have read yet! So beautiful & so touching. So real. It is so hopeful for all of those who are unable to experience motherhood in the way we all “expect it”. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 12, 2014 at 1:52 pm

      I’m so thankful it ministered to you! <3

      Reply
  3. mrsbnjcwilson says

    May 12, 2014 at 10:20 am

    Thank you for sharing your story 🙂 Just heard you on God Centered Mom! A sweet friend of mine just lost her baby boy at birth. I’ve been especially burdened for her as we had the same due date and shared our pregnancy journeys. Thanks for showing me a bit of what she’s going through and how I can love her well. Blessings to you!

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 12, 2014 at 10:42 am

      Thank you! I’m so glad you stopped by. I pray that you are able to love-on and encourage your friend through this season, and that through it all you both will find more of who God is.

      Blessings!!

      Reply
  4. Lisa-Jo Baker (@lisajobaker) says

    May 11, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    Profound beauty here. This post will stay with me a long time. Thank you for how you have so courageously mothered, Natasha. so many warm wishes and a Happy Mother’s Day!

    ~Lisa-Jo

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 12, 2014 at 12:14 pm

      Thank you, Lisa-Jo. <3

      Reply
  5. Julie Sunne says

    May 8, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    Oh, Tasha! I feel like a blind mother in light of the insight and wisdom you’ve gleaned in your mothering. You truly are a treasured Mama to so many children. Blessings my friend.

    Reply
  6. Kristin Lapp says

    May 8, 2014 at 5:51 pm

    I love your heart and your honesty. <3 Kristin Lapp

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 8, 2014 at 5:58 pm

      Thank you, sweet friend. <3

      Reply
  7. amy says

    May 8, 2014 at 5:44 pm

    oh, Tasha! How my heart sings for you! God’s love and grace is pouring down on you and you let us see Him working in you. I am totally broken reading this and it makes me want to open my eyes and watch closer. Praying for you as you journey through motherhood!

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 8, 2014 at 5:51 pm

      Thank you, Amy! <3

      Reply
  8. LOVEcomaDANI + LOVEcomaMOM says

    May 8, 2014 at 4:47 pm

    This is absolutely beautiful! Its the perfect example of how we miss so many things by being stuck on what our expectations and plans are. I gives me comfort to see you find peace after all you’ve been through. I hope i have children but if I don’t get to experience it, know you’ll be my inspiration.

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      May 8, 2014 at 5:38 pm

      I’m so glad. {hugs}

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Best of 2014 – Natasha Metzler says:
    December 29, 2014 at 7:07 pm

    […] of you who have never born a child and think you’re destined to never taste mother-love. How I was Surprised by Motherhood —-the post where I whisper about the ways motherhood appeared… without a child in my […]

    Reply

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