BIG News

We had a very unexpected turn of events a couple of weeks ago when we found out that I am pregnant with baby #4.  Yes, you read me right.  It has been a very stressful couple of weeks to say the least.  With a lot of prayers and deep conversations going on around our house, I am finally ready to talk about it.  I'm sure you are like me and want all the details so here goes.  If any men read this blog, you might want to scroll to the end as I will be talking about my uterus and other womanly things.

Several months ago I got the Paragard IUD.  Birth control pills had never worked for me in the past, the hubby wasn't ready to get snipped and I could not take a chance of getting pregnant while going through the adoption process.  After a ton of research (because I'm a freak like that), I thought that an IUD would be my best option since statistics show that only 1 in every 200 women become pregnant while using this.  From the second I got it, I loved it.  I went in and had it sonogrammed a couple of months after it was inserted to make sure it was still perfectly in place, it was, and we were good to go.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when I started having the funky nauseous feeling that you only get when you are pregnant.  After a few days of this I realized that I was 2 weeks late.  That wasn't really alarming to me because my periods have been abnormal since I stopped nursing #3.  I figured I should get a test, it would be negative, I'd start the next day and move on about my business.  That was fine and dandy until that test had a plus sign.  I'm not going to go into all the details of the next few days because it was ugly.  I cried more than I have ever cried in my life.  I wasn't upset that I was pregnant, it was just that it was so unexpected, we are on the waiting list for Silas and I'm an emotional wreck when I'm preggers.

I quickly called my doctor and her nurse had me come in for blood work to confirm the pregnancy.  Two days later she called to tell me what I already knew.  The problem was that I had to have the IUD removed and the chance of miscarriage was high.  Insert a whole new wave of emotions.  Going from freaking out that I am pregnant to freaking out that I might lose the baby.  The doctor successfully removed the IUD and picked up a healthy heartbeat.  The next two weeks consisted of me over analyzing every little thing as a possible miscarriage.  I haven't been as sick with this baby.  I haven't gained one pound.  I don't have any food aversions.  The only things that kept me sane were the constant headaches, which my chiropractor said were definitely hormonal, and the fact that I could fall asleep standing up at any given moment of the day.

So today was my 8.5 week check up.  The baby looked perfect and had a strong, consistent heartbeat.  My doctor said that because everything looked so great, the chances of a miscarriage from this point on are slim!  My due date is August 25, so I'm looking forward to spending my entire summer floating in a pool, in my bikini!

What does this mean for our adoption process?  Keith and I definitely feel like we are called to adopt.  What's the difference between 4 and 5 anyway?  Our adoption agency will place our adoption on hold until this baby is born.  At that time we will have to have our home study updated and then our dossier mailed to Ethiopia.  We will not lose any money we have paid thus far by putting it on hold, and can just pick up where we left off.  Trying to look on the positive side in that we will now have more time to save the money we need for the second part of our adoption.  God has definitely been working on our hearts and we have been praying about possibly adopting an older child instead of a baby, as we will have a fresh little baby.  We haven't come to a conclusion yet, but are definitely open to what He wants us to do.

I always thought I would have a big family, but this is more than I could even imagine.  We know that children are a blessing from above and that we are not in control (no matter how much I want to be sometimes).  God gave us these sweet babies and will provide what we need in order to raise them and hopefully we won't screw any of them up ; )

"Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from him".  Psalm 127:3