It is for me of great joy to be witness that, in these postmodern times, when the value of life is getting lost and it seems as if living the project that God has on mankind is an utopia, it is possible to live the Gospel on family plane as it used to be lived among the first Christians.

When Gerardo, my husband, and I were about to get married, we thought it would be good to wait for about two or three years before we had our first child. Thus we used a natural method for family planning, although it is given little promotion. We had always been aware that bringing a new life into the world implied great responsibility and that our sexuality had to collaborate on a plan larger than that of expressing love to one another. Through it God made of us life givers and therefore father and mother of a new creature.

When I got pregnant, two and a half year had passed after our wedding. The time of my pregnancy coincided with two events that made us become aware of the miracle that occurred in the gestation of each child: on the one hand, the little son of some friends of ours was struggling for his life —he had leukemia— and he died shortly afterwards. On the other hand, a discussion was being held on those days about whether it was ethical or not to defrost 5000 embryos, which had been reserved to be implanted in their mothers' wombs on their parents' decision, or if they had to be rejected. The decision was to defrost them, a reason why 5000 human lives were aborted.

My baby would be born at a time when those children's life was being offered as sacrifice, one because of his illness, the others as a consequence of irresponsible science.

I went into the maternity hospital taking a "battery of elements" to help Gerardo and me to live through that moment as an experience of God's passage (Christian music tapes, the Gospel and even Cristo Vive magazine, that had come out a few days before).

We had been told that we had to wait, since the uterus was not prepared. We would wait, accompanied by the Lord.

Inside me another certainty arose: if God was able to do much greater things, what would it mean for Him to modify an uterus? No doubt it was something very simple. Having that certainty we started praying the rosary. A nurse came in and heard us, she also saw the cover of the magazine that had the image of Mary, Guardian of the Faith; she immediately asked us if we were Roman Catholics. She told us she had been one, but now she belonged to another Church. When she was leaving she said she would remember us in her prayer.

The hours passed, contractions began and the doctor decided to wait for normal childbirth. Meanwhile Gerardo shared with the midwife about how we lived our faith, and she, in turn, told us how she was seeking God.

Ana Clara was born by normal childbirth. The next day the nurse that had been the night before returned and she asked how the Caesarean had gone. When we told her that the childbirth had been normal, she could not believe it and she told us that after she had left the maternity, she had gathered her family to pray for us. Without meaning it, we had an ecumenical meeting!

God uses any excuse to make Himself known, even what is part of our daily life for us and may happen unnoticed.

For our second son's birth, Juan Ignacio, I thought something similar would happen; however he was born so quickly that I could not believe it.

God Father taught us that He doesn't want our nonsensical suffering. He knows how to give sense to everything, and why it is better for us that things happen that way. After some years of these experiences, I can say that our children are the best gift that God gave us in our lives, teaching us how to have "full time" availability and giving us love and joy far beyond we could expect.