My poor son had to share Easter with Jesus this year. He seemed o.k.. with it now, but I wonder what will happen in the future? I know his birthday will fall on Easter again. Hope he won't be disappointed in having to share, but if that disappointment begins to show, I know what I will do. I will remind him of how he really, truly is a miracle from God.
To really understand this, you have to travel back in time 12 years. As my seminary career was winding down, and I prepared to enter the ordained ministry--and become gainfully employed, my wife and I decided it was time to start our family. Well, it didn't quite work out for us to begin with.
After month after month of futility, we talked with my wife's OBGYN. She put my wife on Clomid, and we began monitoring days and awaiting ovulation. Several attempts proved unfruitful, and the emotional roller coaster my wife was riding was devastating to her.
Right about this time, I began serving Emanuel's Lutheran Church in Seguin, TX. I was blessed with very good insurance and the name of a local OBGYN who was rapidly making a name for herself in New Braunfels. We scheduled an appointment with her. My wife's new doctor quickly diagnosed her with Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Long and short of it, my wife has a major hormonal imbalance which makes it very difficult to conceive. Knowing the difficulties we had experienced with Clomid before, our new doc recommended further assistance. We consulted a fertility specialist.
We made an appointment in San Antoino with one such specialist. After running more than a few tests, we were met with grim news. My wife had one of the highest levels of testosterone she had ever seen. If we wanted to try injections, we could, but they would cost $10,000 a pop with no guarantees. That was much too steep for a couple living off one income and just getting established. The knowledge there were absolutely no guarantees didn't help matters. We knew we could go no further. "It would take a miracle for conception without treatment," the specialist told us. We thanked her, and started looking at adoption.
Fast forward several years and a move to Cat Spring, TX. We had been blessed with two little girls through the adoption process and had settled into a nice routine. My wife wasn't taking any treatments for conception; neither were we doing anything preventative. We were pretty sure we were done and our family was as large as it was going to get.
Then my wife's body started acting strangely. It began with frequent trips to the restroom followed by augmentation of particular body parts which generally stop growing after puberty. My wife became terrified. Her mother had experienced such things when her ovary blew up--a long term side effect of taking Clomid. My wife was very worried she was in trouble.
After doing some research, she informed me she either was pregnant or she had cancer.
"Either way, we've got to go to the doctor. We might as well rule at least one of them out," I replied.
A trip to Wal-Mart and a trip to the restroom later, we got one of the most tremendous blessings we'd ever experienced. For the first time, we saw a positive result on the test!
I'll not forget the next Sunday in church when I informed the congregation. I asked them to please pray for us the next week as we had scheduled a doctor's appointment for my wife because, "the test was positive." At first there was a collective gasp followed by applause when they understood what it meant.
Later that week, we got our first glimpse of a real miracle:
We heard the heartbeat and were filled with a joy that knows no bounds. That one in a million in a million chance had actually happened!
I know that people pray for miracles every day. I know some of them never receive such a thing. I know the disappointment, and I know the joy. I wish I had an answer as to why not everyone--including those who are of a deep faith--receives such blessings in their lives. I think it will ever be a mystery.
Some have tried to explain away such a thing by saying that miracles simply don't exist. All of them have a rational, logical, scientific explanation. Whatever.
I know what the tests showed us.
I know what the doctor told us.
I know what happened.
A miracle.
My son.
Don't ever, ever tell me miracles don't happen. I have one living with me.
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