Tuesday, February 07, 2006

About Me

I am a Christian woman who loves the Lord God with all my passion and energy. I was born in 1967, and have been married since June of 1990 to the most AWESOME and loving husband. After having battled with infertility for over 14 long years, God has blessed us with a beautiful son, who is like Kisses of Sunshine in our lives.

My hope is that through all that I've experienced, (and continue to experience) I can bring a little humor, encouragement and God's shining love into someone's life. While our years of infertility struggles were filled with difficult months of temping, three years of (un-monitored) clomid treatment (which eventually led to PCOS), followed by three IUI's, 2 IVF's, six miscariages (yes... to add insult to injury, one was on Mother's Day, 2004), and a lot of pain and sorrow, we praise God and honor his name, because He is faithful to complete the work he began in us. He has blessed us tremendously with our beautiful son. We had our third IVF procedure and had all or our frozen embryos (2) transferred, which resulted in my sixth miscarriage.

Even through all the pain, we place our hope and joy in the Lord, and celebrate each and every day with our precious son!

8 comments:

Susannah said...

Unbelievable story. I look forward to hearing about your thawing of those three frozen embryos. My two are raised... the struggle, work, joy, and incredible blessing were worth it. Happy Mother's Day!

Anonymous said...

perhaps it was not meant to be that you would have a child.... perhaps you have gone against the Lord's desires by refusing to accept reality. if you were meant to have a child, why would the Lord have put you through so much grief?

GiBee said...

Emily,

Thank you for posting your comment on my blog. I only wish you had left your email address, so that I could reply to you personally instead of posting a long and drawn out post here.

I'm so saddened that you seem to honestly believe your comment.

We serve a loving and caring God. Not a legalistic God who waits to punish us and put us through pain.

He wants to give us the desires of our heart. And, his word says that children are a GIFT from God, and his legacy (Ps.127:3-5).

Adoption has always been close to my heart, and is certainly still an option for our future, because there are so many older kids in desperate need of a loving home ... but my husband and I also felt that God had intended for us to have our own "genetic" child that I "carried and delivered."

No, Emily. I do NOT feel as though I have gone against the Lord's will or desires for my life. In fact, I can look back and see nothing more than God's perfect timing in everything I have been through. I see much spiritual growth, and many blessings from God through the 14 years we waited for a child. I see many women's lives that I have been able to be a part of, women I've been able to witness to, women who have given their lives to the Lord, and women I've been able to help and encourage simply because I did "go through what I did."

Because of the grief I suffered, I am now able to empathize with women going through the same thing. When I say, "I know what you're going through, and I know the pain you feel" -- I really mean it, because I've been there. THAT is a gift to me. Empathy and compassion are so important ... much more than sympathy!

So, Emily ... to me, THAT's my reality. I feel that God's hand has been with us from the very first day of our marriage, and he has guided us the entire way.

And my reality is also looking in my son's beautiful eyes, shining smile, and adorable face, and knowing that God has given him to me as a gift. A promise. Not unlike Hannah.

May God bless you,
GiBee

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am so glad to be starting to fing other christian moms. I am new to this blogging world, and it is over whelming to me..

Nice to meet you..

Blessings, Natasha

Lura said...

I also struggled w/ infertility/PCOS/Clomid, etc, but not nearly as long as you did. We now have 3 boys under 3 ( a set of twins and another). I truly feel that I was drawn closer to God during that time and learned many things. I was very impressed by your kind response to "emily" when others could have been harsh in their response. I'm very happy that you have a little boy and if it's Gods will I hope you have more children.

Anonymous said...

I am glad to see that I am not alone. I truely have felt like I was lesser than because of the trouble I have had with infertility. I also was diagnosed with PCOS and have done the Clomid with no success. I was having a pity party one day about it and I asked my mother why God would give me a perfectly healthy body, but would not allow it to function as it was meant to and her words to me were as follows..."Why are there people born with eyes but cannot see or why are people born with ears that cannot hear?" and it really made me appreciate God in the fact that He is in control and has a Perfect reason for these things. I also believe God wants me to have a child. I will be going through the fertility steps next and I believe that God put those physicians here to help us women succeed. It is definately a growth experience and will teach you a lot about FAITH! He is a Faithful God and proved that with Sarah and Abraham. It took a long time before they were blessed with Isaac, but it did happen. Amen!

Roses Are Red, Violets are Violet said...

GiBee--

everyone is entitled to their opinions...but I was shocked to read Emily's comment above. Most of the time, remarks like that are made by people who don't have children, people that don't WANT children, or people that easily conceived and gave birth to a biological child.

We struggled for 10 years before deciding to adopt. No, we did not try the IUI's or IVF's...but it is simply because I felt as strong a conviction to adopt as you did to conceive. We as women know what God is telling us in our heart. I also believe that every scientific miracle comes from God-- and your kiss of sunshine is living proof.

A sometimes-inconsiderate guy in my old church small group hurt me during our infertility struggle by saying "if God intended for you to be a parent, then he would let you become pregnant." I find it funny that 5 years later, we welcomed them home at the airport with their two ADOPTED sons. It turns out his wife couldn't have children, either.

Good job on your response to her. You showed unbelieveable Christian love and restraint. Thanks for being a good role model.

Tammy C said...

Glad to read that you have a son to rejoice about.We struggles with infetilty -I have PCOS that was diagnosed long before I was married.

I finally did have 2 children,Allison who is 16 and gregory who is almost 13.