Today, I got the most wonderful news...better news than I could have ever imagined.
Let me back up a bit...in October of this year, one of my very best friends will celebrate her 8 year wedding anniversary. She is married to a wonderful man, who is every bit the doting husband and is everything that I could have wished for as a life partner for my wonderful friend.
My friend and I grew up together - our friendship was formed during those very fragile and formidable pre-teen years and has changed, evolved and grown stronger as we have matured, married and moved on from the neighborhood where we first met. She and I have always had a very special connection - she's like the sister I never had.
Over the last 4 years of her marriage, she has been desparately trying to conceive a child. It has been a very long and difficult road for her. She is a woman of very strong and unwavering faith in God, and at first she refused any medical intervention in their process of 'trying.' I respected and supported her decision.
After the first couple of years with no luck, my friend asked God for strength and asked her doctors to try some medication, in hopes that she would find herself pregnant soon after. Again, I respected and supported her decision.
Month after month became a painful journey in unexplainable infertility. The doctors had no reasons, no answers, only more questions and more tests. The pain and desperation were ever present in my friend's voice as she began to withdraw socially, and become engulfed in a sea of sorrow. She doubted God and herself. She also blamed herself.
Two years ago, I got married. Two very short months later, I became pregnant. My heart was full of joy and my belly full of life. But, my friend was suffering in agony and the thought of having to tell her I was expecting was almost more than I could bare.
Being the selfless person she is, she was more than willing to take part in my happiness, and actually did everything she could to make me stop crying when I finally found the strength to tell her my news. I know that she broke down in private after we spoke. Who wouldn't?
After experiencing every sorrow and joy with my friend, praying with every new cycle that something wonderful would finally happen, I started to doubt God's unending goodness as well. How could it be possible that such a beautiful and loving couple, two people that could provide a very good life to a child, how could God allow them to be childless?
This past Fall, my friend and her hubby decided they needed a break from fertility treatments. My friend's younger sister was getting married and there was too much to do....there wasn't any spare time for any all-consuming treatments. At this point, my friend had found understanding and support through an online community (similar to this one), where she shared so much with other women experiencing the same agony.
It was within this community that she was offered the opportunity to be part of a private adoption. It was a very unusual situation, but to make a long story short, the adoption was not going to happen. The birth mother had decided to keep her child.
When 2003 arrived, my friend and her husband decided that this year, they could not face the fifth anniversary of their failure to conceive without pulling out all the stops. Although this type of medical intervention was a huge leap of faith for my friend, she decided to try IVF.
In late January, she called me to chat just days before she was to start her injectable hormones. She was very happy and hopeful - for the first time in as long as I could remember. I was overjoyed for her. I prayed that night harder than I've ever prayed for her (if there is such a thing). I would love her to experience the joy of pregnany and childbirth....the excitement and insecurity of being a Mom and to feel the overwhelming reward of creating a new life. I want my friend to become a Mom so badly that I have actually considered being a surrogate mother for her....although, I have never told her this.
Fast forward to this afternoon. The day that became the day I have wished, and hoped and prayed for...the day that my beautiful friend called me with the most wonderful news in the world...she is pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For a moment, I could not speak. And then - just sobbing and tears. Years of tears that I could not cry b/c I had to be strong for her. I could NOT be ANYMORE happy for her and her hubby. They just found out the other day.
Of course, b/c she conceived through fertility methods, she is considered 'at risk', so they will monitor her progress very carefully. Since the doctors implanted 2 embryos, there is a slight chance she could have twins. We will not know for a few weeks. We are happy and hopeful, but cautious. I want to jump in my car and drive the 5 hours to see her right now and hug her tighter than I have ever done before...but, I can't.
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She deserves this blessing and this happiness more than I can express.
I am very emotional and very overwhelmed and I just want to say thanks for letting me share. Please, if you can, remember my friend in your prayers. Pray that this pregnany will survive for her and that she will become a Mommy before the end of this year. And, may a blessing that you are wishing, hoping and praying for come to all of you who read this.
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