LOOK UP, YOUR MIRACLE IS ON IT’S WAY! – Sarah Bates
“No one plans on infertility”.
No one really thinks about it until you plan to have a baby, only to find out that you can’t.
My husband, Michael, and I experienced just this. After settling down into married life, we were ready to start a family. However, the months rolled by, and then the years, and we still had not conceived. People who knew us would make comments to us like, “Hey, isn’t it about time you two started having children?” – and we would respond politely with smiles and forced laughs, sometimes even holding back tears, as we soul-searched as to why we couldn’t conceive.
We keenly felt the pain of infertility when we were given advice such as, “Just relax”, or “Take a holiday”, or “Stop dwelling on getting pregnant as it will happen naturally.”
Self-pity would try to enter our hearts, causing us to ask ourselves such questions as: “How come we’ve been married longer than them, yet they are having a baby, and we still haven’t even been able to conceive?”, or “Why not us?” when family members and/or friends would excitedly announce their pregnancies.
This was indeed one of the toughest seasons we have endured as husband and wife.
However, we did find it so encouraging when a friend would simply give us their whole-hearted quality time by listening to us and understanding our innermost desire to have a baby.
Ultimately though, we had to continually remind ourselves to put our complete hope and trust in God. Despite the doubt that constantly came knocking, knowing that His infinite love for us is far greater than any desire or longing in our hearts.
After years of continuing to hope and pray for a baby, Michael and I decided to go to a fertility specialist, where we each underwent various tests to determine why we hadn’t managed to achieve our long-awaited dream of pregnancy.
We were relieved when all the fertility test results came back as normal, with the conclusion that we had “unexplained infertility”; so now we needed to put God in total control of our lives, dreams and plans for our future family.
Psalm 9:10 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
God’s promise does not mean that if we trust in Him we will escape loss or suffering; it means that God himself will never leave us no matter what we face.
I wanted married life to go the way I expected it to with our plans for having a family in my ideally perceived time frames.
However, God instead took me on a personal journey of complete surrender to Him, and showed me that He alone was worthy of my trust, regardless of whether or not I had our longed-for baby.
He taught me how to worship Him while my hands were still empty and my womb still barren.
2 Corinthians 12:9 “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
The fact that God’s power is displayed in weak people should give us courage.
Our weakness not only helps develop Christian character; it also deepens our worship, because in admitting our weakness, we affirm God’s strength.
Our fertility specialist suggested we start with IUI, a less invasive procedure than IVF, to assist with conception, so we agreed and underwent three rounds in three months, but none were successful. Our specialist then decided to book us in for IVF, and this treatment produced the desired result of our first-ever pregnancy! PRAISE GOD!!! My pregnancy progressed perfectly normally, and nine months later our son Harrison was born, and we were so ecstatic in knowing that God had, in His divine timing, gifted us with our very own baby! Oh, the joy that overwhelmed us at having our own precious and special miracle baby entrusted into our care to love with the same love that our Father God loves us with.
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
By the time Harrison was five months old, we were delighted to realise that we had conceived a second time, and this was a natural, unaided conception, with our second son, Liam Bennett (Bennett means Blessed one).
We knew that our pregnancy with Liam was another God-given miracle, especially after the five long years of waiting and anticipating our first pregnancy with Harrison.
For our third precious and perfect gift from our Father God above, we had Noah, born 25 months after Liam; and to conceive Noah we chose to have a FET (frozen embryo transfer) from our previous IVF cycle which had resulted in our first pregnancy with Harrison.
Now that Michael and I have our three very precious, perfect, and much loved, noisy boy tribe, we can honestly look back on our faith journey and see that God was with us every step of the way as we decided daily to put our confidence and trust in Him and His unfailing promises.
It was only then that we experienced the manifestation of receiving our hearts desires, namely our three children.
So you, yourself may be questioning “Where is God?” when you or someone you know cannot conceive and get pregnant.
Well, I can assure you that:
He is right there with you, and you can put your trust in Him.
He is there with you after each negative pregnancy test.
He sees every tear that you shed as your heart aches.
He is there to comfort you when you hear of family and friends pregnancies.
He is there comforting you as you hold someone else’s newborn.
He is faithful to keep all His promises.
He is a loving God who wants to have a personal and deeper relationship with you.
He is your Deliverer, your Provider, your Peace, in fact He is everything to you that you will ever have need of.
Even at your lowest and when you find it the hardest, take courage, press in and lean into your Heavenly Father with a heart of praise and thanks for all He has already done in your life and will continue to do.
Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
The pain that you’ve been feeling, can’t compare to the joy that’s coming!
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says The Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome”. (Amplified Bible).