The Story of the birth of a Prophetess (Luke 2:21-40): From Daddy's Perspective (Part 1 of 3)

Anna Marie Bruce came to us on May 6th, 2009 at 10:53 pm. We are so excited to have her with us. She is a true joy, and we are looking forward to getting to know her over the many years to come! Here is the story of her birth...


The “Itch”
It all started when Kelli got the itch. It's funny how that happens. I didn't think she was for real at first, but then she kept bringing it up. “Let's have a baby!” she would say. What?... Are you serious? “Well, wouldn't it be fun?” I don't know, I mean...I really don't know. Maybe? What can you say to something with such life-changing consequences? Let's think about it. Yeah, that's a good answer – a good standard answer.


“The Decision”
Then, we went to Uganda this past summer. I was helping some of the Ugandan workers build one of the orphan homes there, and the conversation turned to personal matters. They asked me if I was married and if I had any kids. I told them I was married, but I didn't have any children yet. They asked how long I had been married, and so I told them 4 years and a few months. They were astonished...4 years and no children? “How could this be?” – they asked. “Is there something wrong?” Then, one of them had a revelation, “Oh! Well, you must be failing then!” Some of the others sort of snickered under their breaths.

Failing?.... Failing??? What in the world did he mean by that?



He continued probing, asking if we were using some sort of “family planning”, and I said yes – which seemed to quell some of his concern, but he still was not quite satisfied. He asked me if my wife was ready to have kids, and I said I wasn't sure but that she probably was. It was interesting to me the response that he gave. He suggested that it was a human rights violation to keep her from having a baby when she was ready. I had never considered it like that before. Either way, Kelli had never been very serious when suggesting we should start trying to have a child, had she? But, nonetheless what he said struck a chord in my heart...it put a seriousness to this topic like I hadn't experienced before. I prayed about it, and I sensed an urgency in my spirit; I believe God was telling me that it was time to move forward with having a baby....this was something that I needed to obey. So, on our way back from Uganda – as we were sitting on the plane together, we decided that it was time.


“An Aside”
By the way, during our time in Uganda, we had been praying that God would come in power. We prayed that He would heal many of the sick people in the villages so that the message that we were bringing would be validated. God responded to our requests, and many people were healed during our time there, and many people believed our message also. I prayed for a few women who had blurred vision. On one occasion, the woman I was praying for said that after I stopped praying, she looked up and at first I was blurry, but then suddenly everything came into focus. Another woman said that at first she couldn't see that there were people standing behind me, but when she was healed she looked at me and then past me and was a little surprised to see them there. She said, “oh...there are people behind you!”


Ok, enough about Uganda...back to Anna.

To Be Continued...