Ryan and I don't want kids.
Not now. Not ever.
There are many reasons behind this decision (and one that we did not arrive at lightly or without much thought and deliberation). There are a lot of things that we would not want to pass down to a child - family medical issues [i.e. fibromyalgia, depression, addiction, etc], the heartbreak of a fallen and sinful world, etc.
Our decision does NOT make us bad people or "less than".
Just because we do not want children of our own does not mean that we do not like kids - we just like to be able to give them back to their parents :) We enjoy being a fun aunt and uncle (whether it is to our nieces and nephews or to our friends' children).
We do not judge you and your decision to have children, so please do not judge us on our decision to
not have children.
I can't tell you how many times we hear comments like "Oh, you have no idea, you don't have kids" or "You will probably change your mind in a year or so" or "But you would make great parents". And don't get me wrong, we know that most of the time that these type of statements do not come from a bad place with rude motives, but they still tend to sting - like we don't know what is best for our lives.
When I was looking for images this evening I came across an article from
Huffington Post talking about some of the
silly things people say when you tell them you aren't having kids. Also, apparently there was a recent issue of
TIME Magazine where the cover story was talking about how
some people want to 'have it all WITHOUT children' - and how that is OKAY [I didn't realize I needed permission...].
Yes, I realize that it may sound selfish to live our lives only having to care for ourselves, but wouldn't it seem more selfish if we were having children just for us, because we "wanted" to, because they were there to fulfill us or take care of us when we got old.
We all have our own path to walk. Feel free to walk along side of us throughout our journey, but please don't criticize what we decide (with the help of God's Word, wise counsel, and the Holy Spirit) to do with our lives.