Finally...

I can't believe it. I seriously can't believe it! We are pregnant!!!!!!!

As many of you know, Kenny and I have been trying to conceive for three and a half years. It has been a long journey, but it has been a good one. While we have certainly had our fair share of emotional ups and downs, we have been overwhelmed with how steady the Lord has made our hearts throughout all of this.

Over the past years, we have gone through countless medical procedures, including surgery, to try to get pregnant. Nothing has worked. Last summer, Kenny and I decided that we needed to take an indefinite break from all things fertility related. We stopped thinking about it. We stopped praying about it. We just wanted to separate ourselves from it all. Thankfully, so many of you remained faithful to pray for us during this time.

Over time, the Lord gradually began to soften our hearts to it all again, and we began to pray about our "next step," if there was indeed going to be one. We had exhausted all fertility treatments other than In Vitro Fertilization, so we had to pray about whether or not to go the IVF route or to start considering adoption. We began to pray, and the one thing we consistently prayed for was that the Lord would be a "lamp unto our feet." We didn't need the whole picture. We just needed to know where He wanted us to place our feet step by step.

Around the end of February, we decided to pursue in vitro. This was a tough decision to come to, but we felt peace in our hearts knowing that we truly were pursuing the Lord in all of our decision-making. We still claimed His sovereignty and knew whole-heartedly that He was in control, not the doctors and certainly not us.

The doctor put me on what's called the "Clomid Challenge Test Month" in March. Basically, all I had to do was take the drug Clomid for five days to make sure that my body would respond well to meds as a prerequisite to in vitro. For those of you unfamiliar with Clomid, it is the first drug that a woman takes to start treating infertility. I did three months of this drug over two years ago, and obviously I didn't get pregnant. I've also done three months of a similar drug to no avail.

At the end of the "Clomid Challenge Test Month", I waited for AF (Aunt Flow...TMI???) to show up so we could get this in vitro party started! After a few days of nothing, I started to think, "Great...of all times for my body to start acting up, it would be the month we're doing in vitro!!!!" After a couple of more days of nothing (except for ridiculous nausea..."Do I have the stomach flu???), I finally asked Kenny Wall to purchase a pregnancy test. He came home with five...I LOVE THAT MAN!!!!!

I took a test the next morning, and I was pregnant! Ahhhhh! I actually screamed, and Kenny thought it was a scream of terror (he jumped out of bed from a deep sleep thinking we'd been robbed). The next thirty minutes or so were a sweet, sweet time of hugs, tears, and early-morning phone calls to family.

We really are still on cloud nine. I've been to the doctor four times since we found out (one of the benefits of being a long-time infertility patient), and we saw the heartbeat today! Woohoo! We have an ultrasound again next week, and I can't wait to see that little bean again.

Thank you all so much for your constant prayers and for always "checking in" on me and Kenny to make sure that we were ok. It has been quite a journey, but in the end, the Lord received the most glory for creating this miracle child!

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD. -Psalm 27: 13-14