P340,
The last two years have been very difficult. We had a troubled pregnancy and ensuing medical bills, I’ve been off work for 5 months and my wife had subsequent endocrine / neurotransmitter after delivery which still linger to the present. There is alot more but you get the idea.
So, I have been a zombie and on the verge of insanity at times since of 07. Numerous times my diet was less than optimal as my wife was on bedrest and my son was in the NICU about 90 miles from home. I had to eat on the run and on what I could afford at times. And I was lucky to get a workout in a week for longs streaks at a time.
But in the end, God’s grace is still good and my youngest son is healthy and robust. My wife is improving and I am schedulued to return to work in about a month.
We prayed for 8 years and tried 3 different fertility specialists to no avail. After deciding to put it in God’s hands (and I mean that vs a casual statement used in a flip manner) and trusting in whatever He chose to provide us, we were surprised to learn we were pregnant. Even after thay had isloated what our problem was (an antiphospholipid antibody issue) and said we couldn’t conceive without direct medical help and that even then it would be a low probablility.
so, as Christians, we placed our selves in Christ’s hands and would be content with what He would or would not give. And boom, in August 07 we get pregnant. Two years after seeing the last of our fertility docs.
Well, when God gives a gift, He ALWAYS gives multiple blessings inside of a single package. Like a good Father always does. We learned to not only trust Him to provide a child but also looked to Him daily as the doctors told us there were probabilities that our child would be born with part of his spine missing, or part of his brain missing, or other terrible scenarios. This was the gravest time in my life. Both my wife and baby were in serious condition.
My wife had polyhydramnios, which is excess amniotic fluid, and had gotten to the volume of a woman carrying triplets. She couldn’t eat without throwing up and was gasping for air in her sleep. So we had to do a fluid drain. A “simple” procedure with lots of risk of abruption (placenta breaking away from the uterus and drowning the baby inside the mother). After her drain, they told her we would have to risk doing this every two weeks until full term. We were only 26 weeks. After much prayer, here levels rose again slightly, then much to the extreme surpise of both doctors (high risk pregnancy specialists who were both working with us) her AFI (amniotic fluid index) began to drop. They were cautiously optimistic as nearly all patient have the issue numerous times until term.
So by March 17th, 08, her AFI was 18.1 which was perfect for 35 weeks. Which is where we were. We came home and were elated. I took her to dinner on our way home from the specialists. That night her water broke and we were back to the Capitol in a few hours.
At his birth, the nurses rushed him to be examined for any problems, and he had to stay in the NICU until old enough to come home. The first day there he stopped breathing 20 times. The strain was beating me down like nothing I could have ever imagined over these months. My faith in Christ is not conditional. It is genuine. And each time I felt as if I was losing my mind from strain and lack of sleep I would have a new hit of stability. I know what God’s tangible grace feels like, and this was it. Each time when I thought I was going down, at the VERY last moment God would come to my rescue. He operates this way to grow us in character and faith. Adversity strengthens bonds, ask any war vet.
Trying to run our house, pay the bills while missing so much work, and taking care of our older son (11 at the time)I was barely getting sleep and ate and drank whatever people from our church would bring over. I was in survival mode.
And the story goes on…
But I’ll tell you ahead of time how it will all end: We will be blessed and will have grown, God’s name and integrity will be validated once again, and our son is not only healthy, but the strongest most vibrant child I’ve ever seen. We get comments from everyone who is around him.
Well… sorry to be so off topic, but I though I’d give you the gist of my lack of “push” the last two years.
Best,
DH
All thats left is to pull out of this financial tailspin. And since my job is very unfulfilling (BUT a blessing to have nonetheless) maybe I’ll finally claw my way to something better… after all… God is full of surpises. Usually not easy, but always good.
