Having a Family

Having a Family

I have to begin many years ago, like 70 yrs, I was at Loyola U. taking a course in Medical Ethics. I had a very astute Jesuit professor, Father Kelly, that taught us the way to live the rest of our lives.

He taught us that when God created man, that He also included a sexual appetite and sexual pleasure. God gave instructions to multiply and fill the earth. Father Kelly said that it only seems logical that, when raising children is such a difficult task, that God would include some pleasure in the sexual act. The desire to have sex and the pleasure associated with a sexual performance is built in the human nature. God put it there, therefore it is good. If there was no pleasure, no one would want to have any children. So in God’s plan for the procreation of the human race, having children is essential.

Now with that background, I got married to Dorothy who had similar training. We felt that the Church was guiding us with principles that were necessary in our lives. So birth control had to be part of our lives to show responsibility for our children. The Catholic Church advocates a system called the rhythm method which promotes responsibility and self control. This is not easy but it can work. However it does help if a large family is planned, because errors in the schedule are common which can lead to unplanned pregnancies.

In our marriage we discovered that Dorothy had a variation in her menstrual cycle. It appears that she would have two ovulations every month, Now that could cause twin babies which is common in both of our families. In planning our next pregnancy, we found out that was correct, and we had twins, a girl and a boy.