A young boy prays for a bigger family. His prayer is answered in a way he wasn’t expecting. Read his story.
When I was in third grade my parents got divorced. I remember feeling very confused and upset.
Until third grade, I was the only child in my family. Now I have a brother who is three years younger than me. I went to a religious school in Denver, Colorado. I was the only kid in the entire third grade who only had one sibling. I was always jealous of the big families – it seemed like it would be so much fun to have three or four other kids around the house!
I remember always asking my parents if they could have more children. My parents didn’t like it when I asked. They told me God has a plan for each family and I should be thankful for the brother I have. After a while I stopped asking my parents, and instead I started praying to God.
I used to lie in bed at 
night and whisper “God Almighty, please give me a bigger family.”
My prayers were answered – though not exactly how I expected.
I don’t remember everything from third grade, and I’m uncertain about the order of events. However, I can almost touch the emotions that were burning inside of me as an eight year old.
I don’t remember my parents fighting in front of me, however, I do remember sometimes late at night, I would wake up to my mother crying hysterically. Sometimes, I even heard the front door slam and then later I learned my father had left.
Despite these signs, nothing could have prepared me for the evening of January 23rd. My parents sat me down in the living room and told me they were getting a divorce. The truth is I don’t remember anything they said. I was just overwhelmed with emotion. There was only one boy in my class whose parents were divorced and he was always getting into trouble at school.
The first few months after my parents divorced were really tough on the whole family. My dad moved out, and my mom said we needed to move to a smaller apartment too. Our grandmother moved in with us for about two weeks to help get things sorted out, but after that we had a lot of babysitters.
I remember spending lots of time alone in my room drawing pictures of happy families during that period. As time went, things got a bit easier. My mom and dad worked very hard to not have my brother and I get between them. We went to therapy for about a year and I really liked my therapist.
When I was in fifth grade my father called us and asked us to come over as soon as possible. It was a Tuesday and we didn’t usually go to my dads on Tuesday nights. I ran to ask my mom if we could go and she said she would drive us over. My mom seemed to know something was going on.
When we got to my dad’s house he announced he and his girlfriend were engaged. She and her three daughters would be moving in with my dad. We had gotten to know his girlfriend well and she was very nice. The best part was one of her daughter’s was my age!
I couldn’t believe it; my dream for a big family was finally coming true. Not only would I have three more sisters but one of them was my age, so it was like we would be twins. Three months later my dad got remarried. I walked down the aisle at his wedding, which was pretty cool.
It has been eight years since my parents divorced. In all honesty, their divorce was one of the most challenging things in my life. I pray none of my friends have to go through the pain my family endured. Despite the pain, I can say my parents have done an amazing job and kept the fighting to a minimum. Additionally, I love my new family and certainly feel sometimes I am more fortunate than my friends because I have two families that love me!
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Revital Belz is one of the team members at Canaan-Online.com. She is a mother of five boys, personally interested in relationships and family life stories.
Have you seen the back of tapestry? It’s ugly with random colors, mixed up knots, imperfections, bumps, and lumps. Besides the lovely colors very little could be considered appealing on the back of a tapestry. Our lives are alot like the back of tapestry. Along with the beauty they’re our failures, imperfections and mistakes. Only from the front or God’s view of the tapestry can we see how it all fits together. From the front, God can see how every stitch is a key part of a beautiful and magnificent picture. God takes the ugly parts of our lives and weaves them into His beautiful plan. God took a young boy’s parents divorce to demonstrates His faithfulness by answering prayer giving Him the big family he asked for. What do you say?
