Praise to our Almighty King!

I feel like I always start out my posts with where do I begin but today I feel especially lead to do so. Over the past two years I have asked for my prayers for my sister and brother in law, aka Tater's parents, as they have struggled with multiple miscarriages after having two children without any problems. Well I am happy to say that my sister is just over 13 weeks pregnant with her third child. You see my sister and I are nothing alike in the fertility world. She gets pregnant the very month she tries and well you all know my story. We became even closer over the last two years as she struggled and I struggled b/c although I didn't know her pain of losing a baby, I did understand that uncontrollable desire to have a child and be unable to do so. After I became pregnant, I knew our roles had to some degree reversed. When my sister got pregnant so easily, it would be hard for me, hard for me to have feelings of excitement and joy over being an Aunt again and then feelings of jealousy on why not me. I knew my sister was experiencing the same feelings of joy and jealousy all the same time when we announced we were pregnant. Shortly after Paul and I conceived my sister did as well. Unfortunately, it was another one of God's angels that didn't hold to my sister's belly. This was hard, not only on them but also on us. We always tried to focus on God but sometimes it wasn't easy, my family was upset, why were we having so much trouble getting and staying pregnant. We all stopped talking about pregnancy for a few months. After a few months, I could see the desire still lurking in my sister's heart for a third child. Shortly thereafter I had a dream she was pregnant and so I mentioned to my brother in law about it, he indeed confirmed she was pregnant but they had just found out a few days before (this is the 2 or 3 time this has happened and every time she has been pregnant). I was thrilled and nervous. I kept the little secret to myself (well of course I told Paul) and we changed our prayer to health of the little precious baby Jessup. Later on my sister and BIL told the rest of the family and we all began to pray for the health of this baby. We knew that this was the last time my sister would try for a third baby. Weeks went by and weekly monitoring showed the baby was growing and everything was looking great. That was until she was nine weeks pregnant and they saw fluid along the spine of the baby. My sister and BIL were heartbroken. They were rushed to Bham to see a specialist and basically find out that they just had to wait it out. Another week of ultrasound revealed fluid still there. We were scared to death, trying to figure out why God would do this, hadn't our family been through enough? We kept praying, kept praying for health for this baby. My mom even would sing the song my other sister made up, "Devil don't take my baby away, Devil my baby is here to stay..." After two weeks of grueling fear, another ultrasound revealed that the fluid seem to have gone down and they thought the ultrasound was normal. We were ecstatic! We knew God had heard our prayers. The following week, she came back down to see the specialist again. This time receiving news that the fluid was in fact still there and that the nasal bone was missing, indicating again that there was an abnormality with this child. Test results gave them a 1 and 34 chance of having a Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome) baby. My sister was scared to death, felt that should couldn't handle a special needs child, worried that she did something wrong, but nevertheless praying for the Holy Spirit to give her strength. They had further testing done that day and found out the next day that the preliminary results were clear, clear that the baby did not have any abnormalities. We rejoiced! We felt we could breathe again. Today she got the final results, and it was confirmed that this baby was free of most commonly tested genetic abnormalities. I cannot tell you how thrilled we are about this miracle. It is only through our Lord that we all had the strength to make it through the last 2 years and especially last 10 weeks. As we close this chapter in our lives, I want to say thank you to all who have prayed for me and my family and ask that you please continue to do so. Baby Sam will have a baby boy cousin Riley in late February (yes they already know the sex), the boys will be about 5 months apart! I also want to leave you all with the verse that my sister sent out to us during her first trimester. It was encouraging to me and I hope it will be for you all as well no matter what your struggle might be..."Be brave. Be strong. Don't give up. Expect God to get here soon." Psalm 31:24 Message.

Thanks for listening & praying!
Much Love,
Samantha