"I wish I could see those two pink lines again"

I just had to reprint this comment by a woman named Susan to Danielle Bean's great article at Inside Catholic. I thought she had such an inspiring attitude:

I have nine grown up children...I was a battle weary mother, also, when I was having my kids. We were very poor at some periods....no hot water, cooking and heating with wood, used clothes and food stamps type poor. I admit to not being happy when I was pregnant with the ninth, to say the least...yet she turned out to be a delight.

Now I am 58 and long past menopause. When I read the bit about standing in the bathroom looking at the little pink lines, my immediate reaction was, "I wish that could still happen to me!" (Only for me it was standing in the Birthright office seeing a tube of fluid turn blue, as there were no home pregnancy tests at that point.) I remember when I was a new mother, a woman who had raised 14 kids (5 of her sister's, who died, and 9 of her own) came up to me and told me she still wished she could have another baby.

It's the most wonderful thing in the world. It seems so difficult at the time, you get so tired, there is so much work, there is never enough money. But later you remember how easy it was to delight them when they were little, how excited they were over a picnic at the local lake, how much they liked to hear you read stories, all of those wonderful things.

So to mothers I say, have as many as you feel you responsibly can...and then if others come nevertheless, be happy over those also.