I remember Bryan and I standing in our kitchen just a couple of months after our wedding day and agreeing that we would trust God in having children. We also believed that having kids was in His hands. We prayed and asked that in His timing He would open my womb. We believed that if we did not prevent from having children that pregnancy would happen right away. Things were not that easy.
Two years after we were married I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). In the book, 1001 Health-Care Questions Women Ask, PCOS is defined as, “An abnormality of the ovaries that produces irregular periods and infertility.” Getting pregnant would not be easy. One year later my regular OB-GYN began doing fertility treatments. The fertility treatments consisted of taking medicine and a pregnancy test every month. Every pregnancy test I took was negative. The first few negative test were fine to cope with but after a while I began to ask the question “Would we ever be able to have a family?” After six months my regular OB-GYN had done all that he could medically. He wanted me to see a fertility specialist. After much prayer we decided that this was where the Lord was leading us. I never imagined needing a specialist just to get pregnant!
Seeing the fertility specialist meant months of medicine, negative pregnancy tests and countless tears. He informed us after six months that the next step was laproscopic surgery and then in vitro fertilization. It seemed that everyone around me had no trouble getting pregnant. I felt, “here we are trying to serve God with our lives and marriage and we can not get pregnant”. Many times I cried and poured out my honest feelings to God and each time He gently reminded me that He was still in control! I remember reading the story of the Shunammite woman who ministered to Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-17). Here was a woman who could not have children, she was struggling with infertility, but she faithfully and joyfully continued to serve the Lord. As a result, in God’s time, He opened her womb. God showed me that even though we were struggling with infertility I was to remain faithful.
The fertility specialist that I was seeing suggested that I give my body some rest for a month or two and not do any of the medicine. At this time my husband and I felt that we should go before the church and ask for prayer. We had asked our families and several close friends to pray but now we were opening up to the body of believers. During this time of rest from the medicine I had been on for years, God opened my womb. After being married for five years we were expecting our first child! Praise the Lord who hears and answers the prayers of His people!
We had decided that if it had taken so long to get pregnant the first time that it would probably take just as long the second time. Once again we prayed for God to open my womb. We trusted that in His time and His way that He would answer our prayers. God does great and awesome things, baby #2 came along just before our first child turned two. My husband and I were overjoyed that God had opened my womb a second time. In December of 2005 I lost a pregnancy. In our sadness and loss we again knew God was still in control. After much prayer we were pregnant again and our third child arrived in May of 2007. When our third child was 22 months old our fourth baby was born. Then in January of 2011 we welcomed baby #5! God has faithfully opened my womb and we feel so blessed. When people know that we have 5 children they are amazed to learn that we struggled to have children in the beginning.
We never know what God’s will for each family is, but our responsibility is to embrace whatever His will is and use it to glorify Him! We are so thankful for the 5 healthy, beautiful blessings that God has chosen to give us.
