A mother’s calling is by far the greatest challenge in my life so far. When people ask me what job I do, I reply, "I am a full time mother and housewife". I hate the common answer of, "Oh, is that all!" Well I would like to point out to many people that being a mother is a very high calling.

I am a mother of 5 lovely girls. I have a 7 year old, a 6 year old, a 4 year old and 19-month-old twins. I thought life was hard enough with 3 girls and as far as we were concerned that was our family complete. But God had other ideas. He has really blessed us with two more beautiful girls that are a real joy to look after.

Ok! You’re right. I don’t always say that. Times are sometimes hard and trying. Before the birth of the twins we were told that one of the babies could have been suffering from downs syndrome. You could imagine our response. We were worried, scared and of course, "how are we to manage?" But we brought the situation to God, we knew that He had created the babies and we pleaded with Him that they would be ‘OK’ and that we would be able to cope with whatever He gave us.

When the babies were born, the first twin was delivered normally and was perfectly ok. The second twin got into difficulties and when she was finally born, thankfully she was ok. It was a very close call. We could have lost her at birth if it wasn’t for the fast work of a brilliant midwife. Thank you Jesus!

After having the twins I became very poorly. I had a long episode of pneumonia and I was very ill. But God kept me going, although sometimes I did wonder where He was. Looking back, I now see He was in control of the situation.

Life was very hard having five small children to look after, all having different demands on me and my time. After pneumonia I got very low emotionally. I couldn’t cope with the children or the housework and to be honest, life was so hard, I didn’t want to cope with that either. I was diagnosed as having bad postnatal depression.

My typical response was, "I’m ok! I am not depressed!" but I was. Reluctantly I sought treatment but most of all I wanted God to miraculously heal me, set me free and lift me out of it, but He didn’t.

I believe He has now though. It took a long time for me to get better. Many times I asked God to take the depression away but all I kept getting from Him was, "I will never leave you or forsake you." I believe that I went through these times for a reason, to strengthen me, to build up my character and to have more understanding of my main calling, ‘being a mother’. I am now standing on God’s word that He will ‘never leave me or forsake me’. When I am under pressure with life and children and circumstances, I have to totally rely on Him. I know when I am not!

I am trusting that God will never allow me to spiral down to the depths of depression again. Having been there, it is not a place I would want to go back to. If I don’t keep my eyes on Him, I could quite easily be lead down the wrong path.

My calling to look after 5 young girls is a real honour. God has trusted my husband and me to nurture, encourage and witness to our children. In this day and age, raising children is not an easy job and doing it without God would be impossible. My first mission field is my children; to raise them in the knowledge of Christ is my hearts desire. I know that only with Christ’s strength and love can we achieve this. This is my main message. I thank God for trusting me with these precious gifts and I trust He will help me all the way in the future.