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In the past few months, my family has experienced some extremely great moments and some extremely painful ones.  It has been quite the adventure.  I hope to share many of the stories of pain and victory here, but some of it is just too personal to share.  Of all the things we’ve experienced, I am excited to share with you what we fondly refer to as our “Christmas Miracle.”

A few months ago, my wife was diagnosed with a condition that causes cysts on her ovaries and also prevents her body from ovulating naturally.  This was not only scary for her, but was disappointing as we were hoping to have another child in the near future.  She was told it was unlikely she would get pregnant without medicine, but the medicine required had some side effects we were not yet willing to risk.  Outside of our immediate family, we suffered through this news alone.

Towards the end of November, she began having pregnancy symptoms.  After taking a few tests, we were confident that God had provided us, once again, with the opportunity to be parents and we told our immediate families the news, via a “Big Brother” t-shirt worn by our son.  Because of the problems she had experienced, we could not know the age of the baby without an ultrasound.  During her first appointment, the doctor did an ultrasound to find the age of our baby.  Unexpectedly, she could not find a baby in the ultrasound, saying that it could be that the pregnancy was not viable, or that it was just too early to see.  To determine which was the cause, they did a blood test that needed a follow-up two days later.  This was a Monday and the following test was on a Wednesday.

At the appointment on Wednesday, and after much prayer from us and our families, we received the news no parent wants to hear.  The blood tests confirmed that my wife was not pregnant.  A chromosomal problem at the very beginning caused our baby to never even begin to form, but her body believed it was continuing to progress fairly normally, so she would need surgery to remove the undeveloped baby.  They offered my wife two options.  Option 1:  They were performing surgeries that day and could get her in immediately.  Option 2:  We’d wait until the following week and they would do a final ultrasound on Monday (one week after the first one) to set my wife’s mind at ease.  They would then do the surgery on the following Wednesday.  My wife opted to have a final ultrasound for her peace of mind.

Understanding that two blood tests and one ultrasound were interpreted by at least three medical professionals, we knew that it was extremely unlikely that a mistake had been made and, in our hearts, we knew they were right.  We accepted that and went through the painful process of sharing with our family what we had learned.

Because we did not want to set ourselves up for a complete disappointment, we tried not to have false hope that something was there, but I admit that I prayed.  I asked God for the doctors to be wrong or for Him to do a miracle so that His glory could be known.  I begged, but I also decided that, no matter what, I was going to praise God.  I thought through the movie Facing the Giants and made a personal commitment to give God my best no matter what.

On Monday, I received a phone call from my wife only moments after her ultrasound.  I will never forget her words, spoken through tears.  “We’re having a baby.  I’m seven weeks pregnant.”  Not only that, but the baby is healthy.  The ultrasound had shown a baby and the heartbeat, completely the opposite of the ultrasound from a week prior.  The doctors and nurses cried with us.  We immediately called our family and told them, again, that we were going to have a baby.  It was, in every sense of the word, a miracle.

I don’t know if God allowed our baby to be hidden from the doctors or if he formed a baby in there in the course of that week.  I’m thankful that my wife also wants God to receive all of he glory from this and has allowed me to share some details that might otherwise be too personal.  We want the world to know that God receives the glory for this.