A Work in Progress

Our Angel

We prayed and prayed for Natalie for 4 years. After many, many, many failed months of trying to conceive and many trips to the fertility doctor, God blessed us when we found out I was pregnant.  That moment of our greatest surprise has come up a lot lately; so, I thought I'd share that story:

We had done family planning.  We had done fertility pills.  We had even done shots.  What worked?  According to the doctors and nurses at our fertility clinic, none of them.  My eggs simply wouldn't mature.  What did that mean?  It meant that we couldn't even do in vitro fertilization.  You have to have a mature egg to be able to do in vitro.  My heart was broken.  I remember calling my mother, hundreds of miles away and sobbing because not only would we never conceive naturally -- we couldn't even do in vitro!  Of course, they had me on the next round of high end hormones and fertility treatment shots.  The next step was to see if they could harvest some of my immature eggs for a less-common procedure called IVM (in vitro maturation), where the eggs mature in the lab.  So, I go in for my visit.  And I can tell you this -- I was SO nervous.  The tech began doing the ultrasound of my ovaries, and then she suddenly stopped and had a weird look on her face.  She excused herself, left, and came back with another nurse.  They both studied the screen with a look of worry mixed with puzzlement on their faces.  They said nothing.  Finally, the two of them left and went and got my fertility nurse.  She came in and looked at the screen.  She nodded at the tech and the other nurse, who looked at me then the floor.  I was thinking they were going to tell me some sort of awful news!  Finally, she said that there's good news and bad news.  The bad news is that at my last visit, they were wrong.  The new infertility path was a mistake.  Then, she pointed at the screen and explained this little mass that I could barely make out... explained it in terms that were way above my head, and finally said "So, that's the good news.  You're ....(and with a giant pause of disbelief)... already pregnant."  I was astonished.  I was in complete shock.  Here we were in the first step of the next horribly long, expensive process... and I got to... skip it?  She followed it up with a smile and a shoulder touch as she explained that it might not "stick".  But, she said that all we could do is be thankful that I was pregnant, and pray for this little life to turn into a beautiful baby.  And I did... I had the most beautiful baby I've ever laid eyes on.

I had a hard pregnancy and about 8 weeks of contractions before labor, but it was all exciting. Exciting that our little Princess would be here for us to spoil and love. I have many friends who are still having a hard time trying to conceive.  I continue to pray for them daily.  And I will always remember that our Natalie is a blessing, our gift from God.  She is here to make me a better person, and to make us a stronger family. She is ours. The one we prayed for. The one we love.