I was the second oldest child in a family of seven children, and there was always a baby or very young child at home that I helped care for. And because children were such an important part of the family I grew up in, after I married I expected that my husband and I would have children. But after many years, it wasn’t turning out that way.

At that time, I was not really much of a student of Christian Science, though I was a member of a local branch Church of Christ, Scientist. I turned to Christian Science only when I had a physical problem. I guess you could say I used it like a box of band-aids and otherwise just left it
on the shelf. 

A deep desire to have children began to fill my thought. I knew that prayer as explained in Christian Science is effective. I did understand and love God as my Father-Mother. I understood that I am a child of God. And I deeply wanted to express the parenting that reflects God’s parenting. I remembered the Old Testament story of Hannah, who was barren and prayed to God for a child. Hannah’s sincere, heartfelt prayer was answered. She conceived and bore Samuel, who later became a prophet and a judge (see I Samuel 1:8–20, 2:21), and several other children as well.