Family Forever

For years I listened to the debate concerning whether a spirit enters a body at the time of quickening or the time of birth. Having carried ten children within me, the debate always caused me to chuckle. I knew the spirit entered the body at the time of quickening because I’d felt that little person within me and knew there was a spirit in that body with a personality and idiosyncrasies and everything else that means life.

But it wasn’t until after my ninth daughter was stillborn that I searched the question out and found this from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “The spirit enters the body at the time of quickening, months prior to the actual normal birth. The value and comfort attending a knowledge of this eternal truth is seen in connection with stillborn children. Since the spirit entered the body before birth, stillborn children will be resurrected and righteous parents shall enjoy their association in immortal glory” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 85).

This is why when people ask how many children I have, I answer ten. I raised nine, but I have ten. I never felt her anxiously sucking at my breast. I never touched my lips to her cheek. But she pinched my ribs, tickled the inside of me with her toes, and playfully tumbled against my muscles and bones. She knew me as mother and I knew her as child. I will always know her. She is mine. She is God's. And we are forever.