{"id":83,"date":"2012-04-16T01:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T01:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","slug":"motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=83","title":{"rendered":"Motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Motherhood was my first dream.&nbsp;&nbsp;While I was growing up, I was always encouraged to find and build a career.&nbsp; I was told to live on my own and learn to be self sufficient.&nbsp; So I studied in school and&nbsp;searched for what I wanted to be when I grew up.&nbsp; Secretly though, I dreamed of being a&nbsp;mom.&nbsp; I didn&#8217;t think I could tell anyone about my dream.&nbsp;&nbsp;Girls were supposed to&nbsp;pursue being a doctor or lawyer, not being a mom.&nbsp;&nbsp;But one day, I shared my dream.&nbsp; So, when the timing seemed right, my husband and I decided to start a family.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>It seemed easy enough.&nbsp; We had friends who were having children.&nbsp; They would decide to start a family and within a short time, announce their pregnancy.&nbsp; Some of them even planned which month they would have their child!&nbsp; It seemed that God had other plans for us.&nbsp; We tried.&nbsp; We prayed.&nbsp; We sought medical help.&nbsp; But there was no child.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Getting pregnant became my obsession.&nbsp; It became my idol.&nbsp; God doesn&#8217;t like it when you have idols.&nbsp; So He began to pursue me; to woo me back to Him.&nbsp; I&#8217;d like to say that I turned around quickly without much coaxing.&nbsp; But that would be a lie.&nbsp; I&#8217;m a bit stubborn.&nbsp; It took some time.&nbsp; Some yelling.&nbsp; And a lot of tears.&nbsp; Until one day, I laid my dream of pregnancy and children on the altar.&nbsp; I was willing to let go of my dream so that I could cling to God.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>In time, He was gracious enough to give us children.&nbsp; First, a beautiful daughter and then, a set of quadruplets made up of two boys and two girls.&nbsp; It hasn&#8217;t been easy.&nbsp; And there are days I would like to forget.&nbsp; But it has been wonderful. &nbsp;I get the honor and privilege of living out my most treasured dream.&nbsp; God is good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motherhood was my first dream.&nbsp;&nbsp;While I was growing up, I was always encouraged to find and build a career.&nbsp; I was told to live on my own and learn to be self sufficient.&nbsp; So I studied in school and&nbsp;searched for &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=83\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}