73 results for tag: Stillbirth
Few things make you ponder the resurrection like losing a loved one—especially a child. In the weeks leading up to Easter, the talk of celebration and hope can feel heavy when your arms are painfully empty. The weight of grief can make it difficult to rejoice, and the ache of longing can make it hard to embrace the joy of resurrection.
But Easter was made for the weary. It was made for the brokenhearted. It was made for those who long for restoration, for reunion, and for life to be made whole again.
When Mary Magdalene stood outside the empty tomb, she wept (John 20:11). She grieved deeply because she thought all hope was lost. But in that ...
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”-2 Corinthians 4:16-18
I have repeated these verses many times. Most of the time, when I am trying to fall asleep and sleep won’t find me—when my mind is wondering and remembering. I have fallen asleep repeating these verses, saying it over and over ...
It was the last week of May. I left after work and decided to go to the hospital because I was concerned that I was having contractions. When I arrived, everything with the baby looked healthy. His heartbeat provided a steady rhythm on the monitor as the nurses tried to get the contractions to stop. My amniotic fluid was high, and I had been going in for weekly ultrasounds, but the doctor had told me that while high amounts of amniotic fluid could result in preterm contractions, it didn’t always lead to preterm labor. My contractions did eventually stop around 6:00 that night, and I was sent home. But at midnight, they started up again.
We ...
On November 21, 2017, I was 23 weeks pregnant, and we were at my OB's office to have a repeat ultrasound done. At our 19 week ultrasound, Garrett was flipped with his spine up, so the ultrasound tech couldn't visualize his heart to confirm everything had formed correctly. Everything else had looked good, and there had been no complications up to this point, so we were not at all prepared for what we were about to find out.
As I laid on the table, the tech scanned over my belly with no words and no emotions. As he finished, he handed me a towel to clean off the gel, still without words. Finally, as we were about to walk out of the room, he handed me ...
In the emergency room I looked at the sonogram screen and couldn’t really see Adalynn Grace. I just thought the equipment wasn’t the best there since it was the ER. A few hours before I had a gush of fluid and didn’t expect to be told it was my water that had broken at 20 weeks.
Unfortunately, we had trouble with this pregnancy even before it started. My husband and I had prayed for 3 years to add this beautiful life to our family of three. We were over the moon to find out that we had been blessed again with another little girl. My oldest daughter was more than excited to find out she would be a big sister.
At the start of this ...
In 2018, my husband, Brian and I had been trying to get pregnant for almost three years. Shortly after, we realized Brian had a low sperm count and he started infertility treatments called Clomid. He had only been using Clomid for two or three months when we realized that we needed to get off of it.
I remember laying on the bathroom floor on my knees, surrendering to God and His timing. "Lord, you know our hearts desire to be parents. If You allow us that opportunity, we will raise this child to know You".
Only a few months later, we found out we were pregnant—and we had conceived naturally. But the excitement didn't last long when we soon ...
Shortly after our oldest son, Kason, turned a year old, my husband and I began planning to expand our little family. After struggling with unexplained infertility with Kason, we did not know if it would take months or years to become pregnant again. But in May of 2014, I became pregnant with our daughter.
My pregnancy was perfect! It wasn’t until a week before our due date that any worry invaded my mind. It was a Friday when I noticed that I was not feeling her move as I normally did. I kept trying to convince myself that all was fine and that there was nothing to worry about. I thought maybe she was just running out of room and didn’t have ...
It had been nearly a year since our early miscarriage and we yearned for a sibling here for our almost 3-year-old son. I had recently finished reading a book on prayer which inspired me to keep a prayer journal and be more intentional in seeking quiet time with the Lord.
I began to recognize that my fervent desire (bordering on obsession) to expand our family had become an idol to me. A verse that I continued to meditate on during that time says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). These words sank deep as I began to understand that the Lord promises to place His desires in our heart, not ...
My daughter's was an easy pregnancy. I glowed from day one, not having much nausea, all the way through to the end when my overdue pregnant 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. What a blessing. One that I 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 all these 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 ...
My story as a mother began in August 2017. As my husband and I were just over two and a half years into our marriage, we thought it was a good time to try and start a family. We started trying that July, and to our surprise we found out we were pregnant in August. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to tell family.
We told our parents when we were eight weeks along. It was a Saturday morning. The next day ended turning into something completely different than we had ever imagined. We were supposed to go to a professional football game that day, but I started bleeding heavily in the morning. I knew something wasn’t right and called the midwife I ...
