I started this sentence to my husband last week: "If you subscribe to the theory that God gives to people what they can handle...", and my husband finished exactly what I had begun: "Then God doesn't trust us very much". Our daughters are exceptional children. Of course there are two other possible endings: 1) What was truly difficult was the first 6 months. We handled that - was that handling? it felt like surviving! - and the extended delight and joy of our children since then is reward for that. 2) We need all the peace we can get now because the teenage years will be hell!

If God really did give people what they can handle, then my father would not have buried his son, and they would both still be alive.