OUR MIRACLE BABIES
In June of 1996, four months after my
marriage to Stephen I found out that I was pregnant. We were so excited. It was a promise the Lord had given Stephen a while back and it was about to come to pass. During one of Stephen's quiet times with the Lord He told him that He was going to give us a double blessing. Stephen was so excited he just knew the Lord was going to bless us with twins.Towards the middle of July I started having awful dreams of losing the baby. The enemy tormented me in my dreams mostly. I would dream of falling and lying in pools of blood and screaming "my baby, my baby!" On the first visit to the obstetrician's office they did an ultrasound and they could not find the baby only an empty sac. We were both so disheartened. I finally after a week or so chose to have a D&C to dispose of whatever was there. I fell into silent depression. It was so very hard for me to understand why God's promise was stolen from us like that. I knew my baby was safe in His arms but I wanted my baby back in mine. We just figured the double blessing God was going to give us was going to be something different now.
Two months after the miscarriage I found a lump in my breast and I soon found out that I had breast cancer. Within a few days after the pathology report came back I was faced with the decision to have chemotherapy. I chose to have it because it gave me a better survival rate. I had children and a new husband to think about. At this point I was thankful that I didn't have to be faced with the decision to abort a baby to have chemotherapy. Prior to the chemotherapy I had to begin radiation treatments 32 to be exact. The doctor told me that there were no guarantees that I would ever be able to get pregnant again. It was possible that the chemicals could make me go into menopause. Stephen and I never gave up hope of having our baby together.
After my last treatment, which was over towards the end of April, I never really started to feel any better. Normally I would start feeling better within a few weeks after a treatment. A month or so went on and Stephen and I took the kids over to Arkansas to visit his parents. During our stay I felt so awful. I was suffering from flu like symptoms and I was as cranky as I could be. On our way home I told Stephen that I thought I might be going into menopause. He refused to believe this. He said the Lord promised us a baby and maybe you're just pregnant. I hadn't had a period in sometime but the chemotherapy treatments seemed to throw off my dates so I was not suspicious of being pregnant. Stephen told me to do a pregnancy test when I got home.
After our long trip and we got settled back at home, I went to the store to buy a pregnancy test. The whole time I was thinking that if I was pregnant the chemotherapy probably harmed the baby. After 15 seconds or so the test result was positive. While being very excited, I think we were nervous to show our enthusiasm because of the effects of the treatments and because of being vulnerable like last time.
About four weeks had past and Stephen and I went to OB's office to have our first ultrasound. We were still holding back all enthusiasm until we were sure that this was a viable pregnancy. So there I lay on the table while the ultrasound technician performed a vaginal ultrasound. Immediately she found the sac and inside a beautiful baby jumping around with a strong heart beat. I could feel Stephen's heart as I am sure he did mine leap for joy. After a few minutes she told me that I was much further along that I had anticipated. I was 3 months pregnant. This concerned me due to the treatments that I had had. She said a vaginal ultrasound is not necessary I can see everything by looking on top. So as she prepared me for that she asked me questions like have you been really sick, a lot more than your last pregnancies. Of course I said yes, so much more. She said let me show you why. We could hardly believe our eyes as we saw
two babies inside of me. Two babies, two sacs, two strong heart beats. Our hearts were filled with such joy. God's promise to give us a double blessing had come to pass right before our eyes. Thank you Lord! The twins were born on January 23, 1998. The boy, Joshua Caleb, weighed 5 lbs. 3oz, and the girl, Rebekah Joy, weighed 5 lbs. They were in perfect health!THEY ARE TRULY THE OFFSPRING WHO THE LORD HAS BLESSED (ISAIAH 61)
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