A New Blessing

As many of you know, Mike and I recently walked through the valley of miscarriage. (You can read the previous post) It was a season in our life that, though this sounds strange, was so sweet to us as a family. It was one of the worst things I have walked through in my life, but to feel the presence of God so visible in it, made it not only bearable, but an opportunity to allow the Lord to use this as apart of our story in Him. We saw the character of God in a different way. We learned that He IS good at all times - we have said that a thousand times, but it is different to say it while walking in that truth. Mike encouraged me through the entire process to look at this through the lens of His character - and not just look at His character through our trial! Because if we look to God in light of our current circumstance we are tempted to say "Our circumstance is BAD, why is God not being good to us?" But if we reverse that then we can say "He is good and somehow this is good for us - He loves us and He STILL loves us despite what we are walking through." It was a sweet time for us.

We continued to ask the Lord to add to our family and we asked our church family to pray that for us as well! One of the most discouraging factors in the whole things was that we had already tried to get pregnant for almost 3 years when we conceived in April. We waited so long only then to be met with disappointment and more waiting. Having to wait to miscarry, wait to try again, then wait to get pregnant again. The waiting is a tricky thing - you wait, with expectation that the Lord will do what you have asked of Him, and you also wait with the knowledge that He knows best and it may not be what you have wanted. You wait with a promise that He knows how to plan your family, and also wait with hope that it will happen soon! One of my favorite verses in this time was this:

"No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." - Romans 4:20-21

We knew that God knows how to plan our family and that is what sustained us in the waiting the past 3 years, and especially the past 3 months.

Our doctor didn't want us to conceive before August, so I set a goal to work out, eat better, lose some weight, and conceive in August! (Which I was able to lose most of the weight I wanted it - I had about 7 more pounds to go, but oh well!) :) On Mike's birthday I took a test and to my shock, and MUCH excitement it was POSITIVE! We felt so blessed that the Lord decided to bless us again with a pregnancy!

We didn't necessarily decide to wait to tell people this time because of the previous miscarriage, but we did wait until we hear the heartbeat. We told our close friends and family and enlisted them to pray for us! We had a few "scares" the first few weeks, that turned out to just be normal pregnancy symptoms (for me) and my doctor is so AMAZING at getting me in right away to just make sure things are good to go. We have heard the heartbeat three times and so far, everything looks perfect. The ultrasound tech told me that the sac is a perfect shape and that the previous pregnancy the sac was an odd shape which was an indicator of lack of growth (or something like that).

I have been sick, which a good sign, pregnancy wise, but stinks for normal day living. About once a week it lets up and I think we are turning a corner, and then it comes back the next day. I really am ok with it, I am just ready for it to pass so I can actually feel human again and ready for my family to eat normal again.

Thank you for praying for us! Thank you for loving our family and rejoicing with us in our new addition! Please continue to pray for us. I am 10 weeks now and we will all probably breathe a sigh of relief when I reach 12/13 weeks. One thing I learned through the miscarriage is that I have ZERO control! To sit and trust and relinquish all fear as been a daily event.

Here is the video that I made to put on facebook to announce our news!



Apparently, I enjoy making videos to announce news! This is the video I made to tell Mike we were pregnant with the boys! (Warning: some pictures our old and we look very different! ha!)