I have been at the birth of six children: four of my own and two of a friend. The birthing process is often long, hard, and messy, but ultimately a beautiful child of God comes from it. When Jesus says that we need to be born again or we cannot see the kingdom of God He isn’t giving us an easy thing to do. Often we think of being born again as just being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost, but there is much more to it. Being baptized is just entering the gate.

Each for their own reasons, many women in my freshman ward suffered from eating disorders. To help them, our ward leadership invited a recovered bulimic woman to give a fireside. Although I have not personally experienced an eating disorder, a truth this woman taught has always stayed with me.

I was for sure done after four, thinking that was a nice number of children to have. However, four years later I had a clear impression that we needed another child (number five) and the door of childbearing was again opened, which eventually led to a sixth child. Because physically my body hit a done button, I felt we were done having children—not Heavenly Father’s plan.