Lord, Glorify yourself!

Today, I would like to share a wonderful story of what it means to follow God's directions, and how he uses life's circumstances to glorify his name! Jeff and I have been very excited, and are pleased to announce to everyone that we are expecting our third child. If all is correct on dates, I should be due to deliver on April 2, 2009. We wanted to wait to share our good news with our families, because there was other wonderful news that had just come out and we did not want to steal the spotlight. I am currently 6 1/2 weeks pregnant, but everything is going well so far...but it didn't start that way. Here is another amazing story about God's grace in our lives!

About nine months ago, I began having some medical problems that were strange and unexplainable. My feet would go numb for several minutes at a time, I was feeling nauseated, tired, and had symptoms like pregnancy. As a couple of months went by, the symptoms grew quite bothersome and I began to seek medical help. The doctors ran blood tests, but could not explain my symptoms. I had been using an IUD for birth control, Mirena, for several months and had not experienced any adverse side effects. After watching the doctors throw up their hands, and taking a pregnancy test, there was still no answer. I turned to my Lord in prayer and asked him what was wrong with me, and what I should do to receive care for my problem. After praying, the Lord spoke to me and told me that my IUD was causing the problems and I should remove it. Sure enough, I looked for information on the Internet and found out that other women who had Mirena IUD's were having similar problems; there was even a class-action lawsuit pending for adverse side effects that lasted after the IUD was removed. I also read that many women had continued to get pregnant while having the IUD in place, and this was resulting in loss of pregnancy in some cases. All of this, along with the idea that it could be causing my medical problems led Jeff and I to the decision to remove it. I had the doctor remove the IUD, which was not as simple as I had imagined. It took four strong pulls and terrible pain to remove it. The doctor said it could have been implanted in the wall of my uterus. I did not feel very well, but the symptoms started to go away immediately. Score one for Jesus. He knew what the problem was.

So after removal, I began to pray and ask God "what now?" You see, I had a rather rough pregnancy with Krischan that took a toll on my mind and body. To be quite honest, I was afraid to get pregnant again because it might be a repeat experience. So I asked the Lord what kind of birth control I should use. He was very clear in saying "None at all." I talked to Jeff about what the Lord told me and to my great surprise, he was OK with no birth control! Talk about a shock. I thought he didn't want to have more children; but the truth is that I think he was traumatized by the former pregnancy as well. But we obeyed the Lord and began not using any type of birth control. Months passed and nothing happened. With both my other children, I got pregnant on a single night without birth control...now months were passing with nothing happening. I began to pray to the Lord and ask him what would happen. He said, "You are going to have another child." I told my Christian brothers and sisters the decision we had made, and they simply told me to wait on the Lord's timing. Well, our family is scheduled to move from Guam in May 2009, so I really began praying to the Lord about his timing! I got down to the month of June and began to feel a little anxious. I prayed and asked the Lord if perhaps, we should start using birth control because of the upcoming PCS move. The Lord once again clearly told me "NO, just wait and trust me." In June, I surrendered to God's will completely and just trusted him. That is when His answer came to me. He said "This is the month you will become pregnant." And sure enough, I did.

Being excited about what God had said, I decided to take an early pregnancy test. It came back with a very faint positive, but positive nonetheless. We were excited, but the next day, I started to bleed quite a bit. I began feeling very unwell, and I was anxious that I was losing the pregnancy. We went to church the next night, Sunday, and the pastors laid their hands on me, anointed me with oil, and prayed that God would heal my body from the bleeding and guard this pregnancy. The next day, I kept bleeding and it was getting worse, so I went to the ER because I couldn't get an appointment with my doctor. The doctor in the ER talked with me and told me that I was having an early miscarriage and that "these things just happen." He did not test my blood, but did give me a very sensitive pregnancy test, which turned out negative. He made a final diagnosis that the pregnancy would be lost, but told me I could keep trying the next month! I was disappointed, but then the bleeding stopped as quickly as it started. I suddenly began to feel more pregnant than before...but I was told that could be an aftereffect of the miscarriage. I was also told that hormones can stay in my blood for quite some time. But I began to praise God because I believed he was in control of all things, and was trying to accept the miscarriage. I was in my car, listening to worship music, crying...when God said to me "Go get another test...you are still pregnant." He gave me such peace that I did exactly what he said. I bought another test and it had a dark, strong positive. I had hope, so I called the doctor's office and convinced them to give me serial HCG beta blood testing, to see if the hormones were doubling like they should. This would indicate a progressing pregnancy!

I went on a Friday and took the first blood test, but had to wait until Monday for results and an appt. with the doctor. I did another blood test Monday morning before meeting with the doctor. At the time of my appointment, only the first results were available and they showed my hormones were a "very low" number of 27. The doctor didn't have much hope...I could see it in her face, and hear the doubt in her voice. She told me she would call me in the afternoon and tell me the second results. But still, she sent me to the pharmacy to get prenatal vitamins, "just in case it was normal." When I was waiting for my Rx, the phone rang and the doctor wanted to speak to me at the pharmacy! She told me that she had to see a 66% increase over the weekend in my hormones or it was not a progressing pregnancy. I could hear the excitement in her voice when she said "We have your second blood test results, and the numbers are considerably higher than 66%. You are definitely pregnant and progressing." After doing the math, it turned out that it was a 311% increase in two days! Praise the Lord!!! The bleeding has ceased and I have been feeling wonderfully pregnant, although with hardly any troublesome symptoms. This my little miracle baby! I thank the Lord so much getting me through a difficult situation, where I could have been very anxious and depressed. He kept my chin held high, and gave me hope and peace. And I believe that this pregnancy is going to be successful and we will welcome another beautiful child to our family.

I pray that this testimony blesses you today and shows you that no matter what circumstances you are facing, you can call on God and he will help you. He will give you peace that surpasses all understanding and show you his will. We just have to keep our eyes on the Lord, and we can make it through anything!

Praise Him today for his goodness and love! Be blessed in Jesus mighty name!

Sarah