Happy Mothers Day – Part 1

Since Mothers Day is in two days, I thought I would share how God blessed me with my kids. Today I'll tell you about my firstborn, Joseph, and in the next day or so, I'll share about Joshua. Both of my pregnancies were "eventful," and both displayed the amazing power of God Almighty. (Of course, every birth is a miracle of God!)

After Randy and I had been married almost 5 years, we started trying to get pregnant in May 2001, and I got pregnant in the fall. We were expecting our first child on July 13, 2002. On December 30, 2001, we were in Nashville, TN on vacation with my whole family. I started spotting and cramping and I called my mom’s hotel room and said, “Mom, I think I’m miscarrying.” Randy and I prayed, and we talked with two of my sisters (who have both miscarried). One sister said for us not to worry because she spotted and cramped with both of her kids’ pregnancies. (Her one miscarriage was actually a stillborn birth during her 8th month.) My other sister had miscarried at 12 weeks (the same point I was at) and she said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but it sounds like you are miscarrying." She warned me that it would be really painful because my body was in labor and was trying to expel the baby. She was right. During the night, it got much worse, and I miscarried on December 31, 2001. (It’s a whole ‘nother story about how heartbreaking it was to watch Randy watch me cry in pain, and seeing the helplessness on his face.)

I left the hotel, went to the hospital, and had a D&C. Once you miscarry, you find out just how common miscarriages are. A lot of women came up to me at church and told me about their miscarriages and the common theme was: “After you have a D&C, it cleans you out and you’ll have one period and then be pregnant.” I was convinced that would happen with me, too. But it didn’t. So, at the beginning of April 2002, I was really discouraged. I had hoped to get pregnant in March so that we could have a baby in 2002, but it didn’t happen. I said to Randy, “I don’t know if we’ll ever have a baby, but I know it’s not going to happen in 2002.” He tried to encourage me about how faithful God is and how perfect his timing is, but I couldn’t snap out of the discouragement.

In spite of my faithlessness, God was still faithful. On April 26, I found out that I was pregnant. I was excited to be pregnant, and my due date was January 9, 2003. (Later, it was changed to January 5, 2003.) God gave me a healthy pregnancy, and I was so glad when we made it past the point (12 weeks) when I had miscarried the previous time.

Then in the afternoon of December 30, 2002, I went in to labor. I called my mom and said, “Mom, I think I’m in labor.” When I hung up the phone, I was overwhelmed with amazement at God. I burst into tears when I realized that exactly one year earlier, I had called my mom and told her I thought I was miscarrying! I thought, “This is amazing! I’m going to have a baby on the anniversary of the day I miscarried last year.”

We got to the hospital around 5:30 p.m. There were no rooms available (wonder if this is how Mary felt when she was pregnant with Jesus! Ha Ha!) so I had to wait in the waiting room. A nurse kept checking on me and asking how far apart the contractions were (3 minutes) and she told me they were working to get a room available. At 6:00, I was in my room, dressed (using that word very loosely) in the hospital gown, ready to labor throughout the night, and have a New Years Eve baby. When they hooked up the monitors, they noticed that the baby’s heart rate was dropping with every contraction. The doctor walked in at 6:09 pm and said, “We’re going to have to ‘section’ this baby. Otherwise, he won’t make it!” I thought, “You mean I’m having a baby NOW?” I thought he would be born on December 31 after hours of painful labor! They prepped me for surgery and he was born at 7:18 pm on December 30!

God totally blessed me in spite of my faithlessness. He healed my body from a miscarriage, got me pregnant, and gave me Joseph, a healthy baby boy. And He did it all in 364 days!