Many years ago, I was a single mother with three small children; I was also a very new Christian. I was dating someone seriously, and was not walking in obedience to the Lord and His word. I made the decision to have a tubal ligation (my tubes tied), as the man I was dating was divorced and had children for whom he was paying child support. With this in mind, I determined that we would not be able to afford more children (should we get married), so therefore, I had the tubal ligation. I knew that having sex outside of marriage was against God’s word, but I was weak in my faith and did not obey. I did not realize that having my tubes tied was against God’s word as well. I had not been in any church that taught that having your tubes tied was wrong, much less that birth control was wrong. Most (if not all) of the Christians I knew used some form of birth control. I was one of them too.

I did not marry the man I had been dating when I had my tubes tied. God brought a man into my life that would bring me back to Him and His word - my husband Mark. Mark did not have biological children. He had always wanted children, and loved me so much that he was willing to marry me, accept responsibility for my three children and accept that he may never have his own children. God taught me much about my disobedience through my relationship with Mark. I did repent of my sins, and was forgiven; but my tubes were still tied - what was I to do?! God was working on Mark and me about what His word says about children and we realized, through scripture, and conviction from the Holy Spirit, that we needed to make myself whole again and to leave our family size up to Him - this is commonly referred to as ‘quiverful’, ‘quiverful conviction’ or ‘quiverful movement’.

We needed to have a tubal reversal. Our insurance would not cover the cost of this procedure, and it’s quite expensive. We found a list of Christian doctors who perform this surgery as a ministry, and at a reduced cost (my surgery was only $4,225 total with Dr. Rath in New Braunfels, Texas) ); but we didn’t have enough money. We had just gotten married and purchased a new home. There were a couple of times, over the course of the next few years, that we had the cash for the surgery and God would tell us to wait and take care of another need first. I did not always understand at the time, why we had to wait. We wanted a baby right away; but we obeyed.

Finally, after 4.5 years of waiting, I had my reversal surgery. I now know that God was preparing our hearts, through our waiting, to help us mature in our faith so we would be able to handle what was ahead ~ the loss of our first tubal reversal baby ~ Zachary.

Even though we lost one child ~ God has since blessed us three more times! Samuel Joseph born March 19, 1999, Emily Taylor born July 27, 2000 and Hannah Elizabeth born January 18, 2002!!

Sadly, there will be no more babies for us. In April 2003 I underwent a total hysterectomy due to some serious female problems. We remain quiverfull in our hearts and we count our blessings with all the children God has given us. Indeed our quiver is full of blessings!

Written by Traci Knoppe ©: Aside from her roles as wife, mother of six, mother-in-law and grandmother, Traci is a Christian parenting instructor, Sunday school teacher, and business owner.

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