Thursday, August 12, 2010

For THIS Child, We Prayed....

Most of you know that we had a rocky start to the pregnancy with Noah. At 8 weeks, we ended up in the ER and were told after two ultrasounds that we had lost the baby. We were devastated and spent the rest of the weekend grieving the loss of the baby that we had been so excited about. We cried and tried to accept God's plan, understanding that miscarriage is a sad but very common occurrence. We had only told a small number of people and felt that we had to share our loss to move forward. Again, we were overwhelmed with love and support. We couldn't have been more appreciative.

At the ER, they had set up an appointment for me to see my regular doctor as a follow up. We talked about the symptoms and what had brought us in to the ER over the weekend. She decided to do an ultrasound again to confirm things for herself. We were totally unprepared for what had happened next. I'll never forget what she said. She started with, "I'm so sorry...wait...no, I'm so sorry." And then she turned the screen around and pointed. "We have a baby with a heartbeat." I don't think I can put into words what the felt like. Joel and I were speechless. I think we even laughed in our amazement. It was total shock. We had had TWO ultrasounds and had spent hours in the ER. How could this be true? But, it was true. The most amazing and wonderful news!

Joel and I left on a complete adrenaline high. I don't remember much else except for the calls to our parents to share the good news. We were so happy! It was such an incredible turn of events and we didn't know what to do next. But the relief was short lived. Follow up appointments had been scheduled to monitor the pregnancy a little more closely over the course of the next 10 weeks. My doctor believed it was a subchorionic hematoma and told me that I could expect more bleeding, but that the baby was fine and I would most likely go on to have a healthy, full term pregnancy. "Most likely" was not quite the reassurance I was hoping for. I always expected that I would be a bit of an anxious pregnant woman, but having been through that experience, I was a wreck. I don't think I was able to really relax until about December when I was feeling the baby move regularly. We prayed every day that God would let us keep THIS baby. We do our best to trust in His plan for us, but we desperately wanted to meet the baby that had given us such a scare! (As I had joked at the time, this kid was grounded for life!)

Fast forward to now. We have a beautiful, healthy, happy, incredible son. We are SO thankful for Noah! Words can hardly express our joy and gratitude to God for giving him to us. He is so amazing and we never tire of marveling at his sweet sleeping face or his hysterical laughter. So, on the birth announcement, when we included the Bible passage from 1 Samuel 1:27, "For this child, we prayed..." it has a very special meaning for us. While we always prayed for the blessing of a child, we truly prayed for THIS child. And exactly a year later, we still do.

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