This is the series I've been really excited to write, the one where I tell you about the big project we've been working on, and explain how we got here... We've definitely been on a journey to build a family. For some families it comes easy, even too easy for some, but for us it's been a long road. For those of you who haven't been reading here for very long or don't know me very well yet, I'll give a little background. In a little over a month I will come to the anniversary of my first miscarriage, which was in November of 2005.
I was naive, unsure of all that was to come and of the path the Lord had for me. We headed out to our yearly Thanksgiving camping trip, and we were thrilled to be telling our parents that we had just seen the heartbeat of our little baby... just over six weeks pregnant. And then, less than a week later I had lost the baby.
Reading through Job encouraged me at this time, and the song that was (ironically) so beautifully sung at our wedding, finally came to have a more full, complete meaning in my heart.
You give and take away, You give and take away, My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name.
Fast forward to July of 06. After the requisite 3-month waiting period, we tried again, and a few months later conceived, or so we thought, only to immediately miscarry a blighted ovum or chemical pregnancy (which is where your body thinks you are pregnant but the egg is indeed not actually fertilized). My doctor wasn't too worried; it wasn't very out of the ordinary for a woman to have two miscarriages, although she did do a few tests that came back fine.
A few months later, while visiting my in-laws in Chicago, I made an impatient stop at Walgreens near the Wrigley Building downtown and then, while my sister-in-law waited outside I took the test right at Starbucks, trembling with excitement. After a series of blood tests to insure that my HcG levels were indeed doubling, and starting progesterone treatments, I finally got the call that I was indeed pregnant.
A few short hours later, I got the shocking call that one of my best friends had been killed in a plane crash, traveling to Mexico on a medical missions trip. Amidst a crazy emotional time though I felt the Lord's overwhelming peace and confidence in my pregnancy. I knew in my heart it was a girl, and that she would be blessed to carry on the name of my dear friend Brianne as her middle name.
To be continued...