Several years ago, this Facebook profile picture caught my eye and pricked my heart (used with permission).

Photo courtesy of Anna Cantwell

“Before He formed me in the womb, He knew me.”

At the time I typed up this blog post, I had been trying for nearly four years to get pregnant. Four years is equivalent to an entire presidential term, all the years an average kid is in high school, long enough for some of my friends to have two or three babies. It’s enough time for a woman to be disappointed fifty times that she is again not pregnant.

Needless to say, I think about my future babies all the time. I pray incessantly for God to bring them into our lives, asking Him to miraculously create a new life in my womb.

No wonder that picture spoke profoundly to me. God knows my children. Already. He knows their genders, their names, and he knows exactly why they will be born when they will be born. He understands the delay of their conception. I will continue to pray for them, and I am so reassured to know that their Creator already knows them. Truthfully, I can’t comprehend that.

Although we’re not pursuing adoption at the moment, we can’t say that we’ve ruled it out. In light of that, I realize that God knows my babies that are yet to be conceived, and he knows my possible children that already exist. If you or I adopt one day, we might have children out there that are already conceived, already born, or are already growing up somewhere.

Pray for your future children, but do so with the perspective that God already KNOWS them. Before we were conceived in our mother’s womb, God knew us. If God gives you name ideas, pray for your children by name. He knows the names of every child that you or I will ever parent. Have you watched this video about Chloe that affirms how much God is in the details?

Keep praying, my friends!

Note: this blog post and photo were originally posted in May 2014 on the Cherokee Chix blog that is no longer online.

Hi, I’m Betsy Herman, and I live in the Washington, D.C. area with my husband, Mike. We have been married since 2008. We enjoy exploring new cities together on foot, eating at our favorite Italian restaurants, and doing life as a team.

I published my first book Embracing Hope During Infertility in January 2015, and my second Seasons: A Picture Book was published in November 2016. Although this book is intended for children, if you’re still in a barren season like I am, I think that Seasons will encourage you with a glimpse of God’s goodness.  

I would love for you to connect with me by following my Hope During Infertility Facebook page and my Betsy Herman, Writer Facebook page. I occasionally tweet as well.

Thanks so much for reading my posts!