When an unexpected event occurs, sometimes it is welcome and sometimes not. When the unexpected event is one of great blessings, it truly shows the infinite grace of God. HE has given me many more undeserved and unexpected blessings than I could ever imagine possible. Some blessings I didn’t recognize until long after they were given. But some were truly so unexpected, that it was evident right away HE alone had given the blessing.
A dozen years after our NICU experience my youngest sister had her own brief NICU event. She joined my younger sister and I in motherhood when she gave birth to twin girls that were just a bit early. Since I had spent many days in the NICU myself, I was granted a few minutes in the NICU with them a few hours after their birth. My nieces were already at the weight that my own two precious girls reached just before coming home from the NICU, so they looked fairly healthy. But I caught a glimpse of one very tiny preemie. Oh the memories that flooded my mind! Oh, the moments of “baby envy” that overcame me!
Over the next few days I truly began to have those baby blues. Our “tiniest blessings” were now 11 and we had an almost seven year old daughter as well. We also were temporary guardians to a relative of my husband and he was right in between the girls at age nine. But the following weeks really had my mind desiring a baby so much that I had phantom symptoms of pregnancy. Which was an impossibility.
After a few miscarriages following our NICU experience, we welcomed a third daughter after two months of partial bed rest with two preschoolers at home with me. Those last few weeks were a bit difficult to navigate. Health issues for me arose once again with preeclampsia during the week before she was born. After many discussions my husband and I, along with my doctor, decided it would be too difficult for me to try and carry another baby. The decision was made to have a full tubal ligation following the planned C-section.
In spite of that, here I was having moments of baby envy. My phantom symptoms increased. 14 days after my nieces arrived, our youngest daughter informed me she was tired of being the baby of the family. She added that she was wishing for a baby sister and had even asked God for one. This prompted me to have my husband pick up a home pregnancy test on his way home from work.
The shock I felt when the test was very quickly positive can’t ever be fully described! Within hours my doctor confirmed it with her own test and exam. The shock we both felt for days left our older daughters with a variety of impressions of the event. I myself cried continuously for that first week for several reasons. I had been on some prescription medications that I worried would cause a problem for a baby. I thought God was sending us another baby because he knew we were going to lose one of our kids. There was also guilt since I knew couples that were not able to have a baby. On top of those thoughts was the very real fact that I was now at Advanced Maternal Age and in the high risk category, especially for preeclampsia.
But in HIS great mercy and grace, God granted me the easiest pregnancy yet! Only a few early labor signs within the last five weeks. I did have the worst case of preeclampsia with this birth, but medications controlled by blood pressure soon after the birth of our baby boy. The baby boy that shares a birthday with my sweet Granny. The baby boy that recently graduated with his master’s degree has truly been the best Unexpected blessing I could ever imagine! All because our youngest daughter had the “faith of a mustard seed” and asked God for a baby sister. She may have gotten a brother instead – but God certainly blessed us all!
On a side note; following his delivery via C-section, the doctor asked permission to verify the tubal ligation had been done. Her exam discovered that the tubal ligation was still fully “intact” just as it was the day it was done. HMMM. You can read a couple posts about this unexpected blessing below.
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Luke 17:6
The Joy in My Journey 