234 results for tag: Share Your Story
My husband and I have lived in Osaka, Japan working as church planters for the last six years. The Japanese are considered “unreached,” meaning less than 1% are Christian; most people have little to no understanding of the Gospel. We have been blessed to have two children in Japan. My Japanese friends ask me how childbirth here compares to the United States, to which I usually grin and say, “I don't know, I’ve never given birth there!”
I was so anxious to get pregnant with our third child. We have a four-year-old boy, and a two-year-old girl, and I was excited to add another child to the family. When we discovered we were pregnant, it was ...
After almost a year of trying, we finally got pregnant with our second baby and were able to surprise my Dad on Father’s Day with the news. Just six short weeks later on July 26, our family got the worst blow we have ever experienced when we lost my Dad unexpectedly in an electrical accident while working under my parent’s farmhouse. A week to the day following his accident I started experiencing complications in my pregnancy and was immediately sent to my doctor’s office for an ultrasound. Much to my relief there was still a strong heartbeat, everything seemed fine. I was simply instructed to rest.
The complications continued, and I spent ...
Memories can be triggered by sights, sounds, or smells. Every time I see a Hershey's bar, I think of my dad. He loved them! A good memory – along with the pain of the loss.
We never know when a memory will be brought to mind. A recent memory was triggered by a place. This memory goes back 33 years.
A friend had been on bed rest due to bleeding and early contractions at 24.5 weeks. We got the news (amazing how with social media and texting you hear about things as they are happening!) that her water broke and she would deliver that day – at 27 weeks. We were still at a church ministry event when my friend's Oma (German for grandmother) ...
In 2008, I met the love of my life, Ken Stoddart. We had an exciting and romantic courtship and were married on July 17, 2010. We were beyond thrilled when we found out we were pregnant right after the wedding. I remember taking a pregnancy test 20 times, just to make sure. The feeling of seeing those lines was beyond exciting.
I called my sister, and asked her “What do I do now?”
She simply replied, “You wait.”
I had horrible morning sickness and only wanted to eat cookies and ice cream. My mother-in-law told me that the sicker I was, the healthier the baby was going to be. I had no doubt that PNut was going to be beautiful. We went ...
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year already. A year since our world was shaken.
A year ago, this month, our little family welcomed a new addition—one we had eagerly awaited and prayed for, for so long. And instead of snuggling him in my bed, I was on my knees in the hospital bathroom, with my head to the cold floor, begging God to spare our son. It was not supposed to end this way. This was not what I had imagined six months before when I first saw those two pink lines.
In Feb, 2015 we found out that we were expecting our second child. Our 2-year-old son would be getting a little brother that November. Early on in the pregnancy I ...
My story began long before the births and deaths of my babies. I had always wanted to be a mom. I wanted a big family. I wanted lots of children. Fast forward to married life, and I learned I couldn’t have children without medical intervention. With the use of fertility drugs, a willing husband to give me hundreds of shots, and great doctors, I became a mom to my firstborn, Claire. Life was fabulous. We decided to try 6 months later. It was a “breeze” the first time, so how hard could it really be? I was so very naive.
It was very hard to get pregnant the second time. After many attempts at IUI, and many, many more shots, I finally became ...
My pregnancy with my daughter was easy. I glowed from day one, never having much nausea, all the way through to the end when my overdue self waddled into a room, happy and content, dreaming of my baby. Aside from her necessary induction ten days after her due date, my pregnancy and delivery were textbook. This is one thing that I truly took for granted, as most do when they haven't been touched with loss.
Her younger brother's story, while textbook in the pregnancy stages, didn't conclude with a happy ending. Funny how eight years later, I can close my eyes and review details that weren't as sharp to me as I was living in them. The grief walk is a ...
“I’m sorry, I normally can see a heartbeat in a baby this size, but I don't.”
“I’m sorry, this doesn't look to me like a viable pregnancy.”
Two different pregnancies, two different ultrasound techs, two different lives lost. And my heart broken two different times.
The doctors say it’s good that my two “missed” miscarriages didn't happen in a row. I had a healthy son between the two of them. But that didn't comfort me. Nothing can comfort a woman who has just found out her baby “isn't viable.” Nothing but the love of Jesus.
The first time I miscarried, the pregnancy was not planned. I still, however, cried buckets of ...
"It was April Fools Day. Pregnant with our third child, we were scheduled to receive our 20-week anatomy scan, and to learn the sex of our littlest babe. We arrived eager and couldn’t help but giggle that here we were again — God had blessed us with yet another surprise miracle, after struggling to conceive our first child.
Three babies in three years when we were once told “You might never be able to do this on your own.” We couldn’t wait to learn if this last blessing in my womb was a boy or a girl. The moment the technician started the scan I knew something was wrong. I sensed it in my bones the moment the wand was placed on my belly. ...
"I had a textbook pregnancy. It was my first pregnancy, and I enjoyed every second of it. We didn’t find out the gender because we wanted it to be a surprise. I chose to use a midwife for my prenatal care and delivery. It was always my dream to have a completely natural birth in water at a birth center. I went into early labor on my due date which was May 8th at about 11 pm. This was when the contractions first woke me up. They weren’t bad, so I just tried to get as much sleep as possible. When my husband woke up to go to work, I told him that I’d been having contractions all night so we decided for him to just stay home.
I had ...
