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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Tenth baby

Päivämies-verkkolehti
Vieraskieliset / In-english
24.5.2016 6.55

Juttua muokattu:

1.1. 23:32
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We had our tenth baby. The rhythm of fa­mi­ly life slo­wed down for a while. The baby fil­led our thoughts. When I was yo­un­ger, I thought the life of a big fa­mi­ly is rou­ti­ne, work and strug­g­le. I have been as­to­nis­hed to find that there is so much more to fa­mi­ly life. There is cer­tain­ly a lot of work, but there are al­so a lot of pe­op­le. When one of our tee­na­gers picks up the baby, the mo­ment is al­most holy. My wife and I can on­ly step back and watch the en­coun­ter bet­ween ado­les­cen­ce and in­fan­cy. My wife says that those mo­ments make her re­a­li­ze how im­por­tant it is to slow down and pau­se.

I was lis­te­ning to our school-aged child­ren and tod­d­lers prac­ti­ce sin­ging while I tried to make our se­cond yo­un­gest child set­t­le down for her nap. The child­ren were prac­ti­cing for the baby’s bap­tism. My wife was pla­ying the ac­com­pa­ni­ment and gi­ving ad­vi­ce to the choir. Five-ye­ar-old Ben­ja­min got car­ried away and sang so loud that neit­her of the child nor I could fall as­leep. But I still en­jo­yed the si­tu­a­ti­on. I could sen­se my wife’s smile when she proud­ly loo­ked at her son. This boy sang lou­der than a re­gi­ment of sol­diers. Ma­y­be that is why he is par­ti­cu­lar­ly fond of sin­ging to the tune of mi­li­ta­ry marc­hes.

While I am wri­ting this, there is on­ly one day left to the bap­tism. We are ti­dying the hou­se and the yard for the fes­ti­ve oc­ca­si­on. Our tee­na­gers are set­ting up be­au­ti­ful lan­terns out­si­de. They will light up the yard and wel­co­me our gu­ests. This ce­leb­ra­ti­on will be sig­ni­fi­cant for us. Some of the baby’s god­pa­rents are friends from our yo­uth, who now live fart­her away. It felt good to ask these friends to be es­corts for our baby and our fa­mi­ly. One coup­le used to be our neigh­bors. Their child­ren are still dear friends to our child­ren. Grand­pa­rents are al­so ea­ger­ly awai­ted gu­ests. The baby’s bap­tism will be a me­mo­rab­le event.

Can the tenth child con­so­li­da­te our mar­ri­a­ge? I pre­sent this qu­es­ti­on to my­self and my wife. My ans­wer is: This child has strengt­he­ned in me the de­si­re to do things to­get­her. When our se­cond yo­un­gest gi­ves me a big hug while my wife is fee­ding the baby, I re­a­li­ze the sig­ni­fi­can­ce of my role as a fat­her. I look gent­ly at my wife. In re­turn she looks at me in the way that I re­mem­ber so well from the time when we were cour­ting. That look says eve­ryt­hing.

My wife’s ans­wer to my qu­es­ti­on was this: A new life touc­hes one’s he­art deep­ly and gi­ves a spe­ci­al fee­ling to home life. Dai­ly cho­res inc­re­a­se when there is a baby in the hou­se, but at the same time we are re­min­ded of the most im­por­tant things in life. My spou­se, the hel­per sit­ting op­po­si­te to me, seems dear and im­por­tant. We are mot­her and fat­her to the baby and all of our child­ren, but al­so hus­band and wife – each ot­her’s most im­por­tant es­corts.

She con­ti­nu­ed: Some pe­op­le may won­der if all child­ren in a lar­ge fa­mi­ly can feel lo­ved. My ex­pe­rien­ce is that the more you share love, the more love you seem to have. The spou­ses love each ot­her and their child­ren. The love bet­ween sib­lings is ext­ra­or­di­na­ry and touc­hing. Li­ving and wor­king to­get­her, ai­ming at the same goal, we will take care of our fa­mi­ly un­der God’s bles­sing and gui­dan­ce.

Mat­ti Kin­nu­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: S-L.L.

The blog post was pub­lis­hed in on­li­ne Päi­vä­mies on 3 Nov. 2015

29.3.2024

Jeesus huusi kovalla äänellä: ”Isä, sinun käsiisi minä uskon henkeni.” Tämän sanottuaan hän henkäisi viimeisen kerran. Luuk. 23:46

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