Bet you never saw this coming...

Day 246 Waiting for our miracle babies

So, many of you have been asking what the surgery was for. I have to admit, I purposely didn't answer because we were waiting to see the outcome. But after months of keeping this secret, we can finally share with the whole world that I am...

PREGNANT

Yes, you read that right! I am expecting! My due date is April 9, 2010. Today my surgery was a cervical cerclage. It was necessary because of my prior history with Incompetent Cervix. Everything went well. Although we aren't out of the woods yet as far as risks are concerned, we passed a major hurdle today. So long as the bleeding slows down and I don't get an infection, things will most likely be ok. In fact, one doctor told us that so long as complications don't happen, the chances of the cerclage failing are only about 1%.

This pregnancy is such a miracle, it was completely unplanned and unexpected. When I was pregnant with Gavin, doctor's told us it was a "statistical fluke." AKA according to them, it never should have happened. Then after Gavin was born we were specifically told we would never be able to conceive again without major medical intervention. I guess this just goes to show that doctors should take into consideration God's influence.

So here's the somewhat condensed story. Don't worry, I won't get too graphic! Remember back in July when we were called to go to North Carolina to adopt a baby girl? Well, that call came at 4:30 in the morning and we packed in a frenzied hurry. In the frenzy we managed to forget to pack the... birth control. So all told I managed to miss about a week of my pills. (A little side note here... I don't actually take the pills as a contraceptive. In fact, my body has always served quite well as its very own contraceptive. The pills are actually used to manage my PCOS, or poly cystic ovarian syndrome. Without them I have incredibly screwed up cycles.) Anyway, unbeknownst to us, a whole week of missed birth control can really screw up your whole month's cycle and you can ovulate. Apparently that's what happened to us. I actually ovulated for the first time in probably 2 1/2 years. And it was just our luck that this one time, we managed to conceive. I guess even though the adoption of Jaida failed, there really was a reason we needed to go to North Carolina!

It was only a short time after our birthmom, J, selected us that we found out about my pregnancy. Of course we were floored. I can't even tell you how much we both cried. We have been so terrified that we will lose this baby the way we lost Gavin. But we called our caseworker with LDS Family Services right away. Charity told us that because J had already selected us, we could move forward with the adoption plan. Of course that's what we wanted, but we knew it was J's decision. We were strongly prompted to talk to her about it as soon as possible so that she could make her decision before becoming too emotionally tied to us. We were just so afraid to hurt her. Telling her about my pregnancy was very hard. We explained to her what our desires were, and then told her we loved her and would understand if she needed to choose another couple. We even told her that we knew of some really great people if she wanted some suggestions. She asked for some time to think about it, and we agreed to give her all the time she needed.

Later that day J asked us to drive down to see her. We were so nervous. But when we picked her up we felt an overwhelming sense of peace. She directed us to a park and we sat down on a bench. She told us that after she was able to get past the shock of our announcement, she was able to think about it clearly. She told us the most important thing about adoption is that the baby goes to the right parents. Then J told us that she felt from the very beginning that we were the right ones and that my pregnancy didn't change that. I think that was one of those moments that just drew us so much closer to her. She is a truly amazing woman. It was interesting though, she did say that if we had waited to tell her, she probably would not have made the same decision. We are so grateful we followed that prompting we had.

So, the long and short of it is that we are expecting two babies!!! The doctor plans to remove the cerclage at 36 weeks and expects that at that point I will have the baby. That puts us around mid March. So that means these two babies could be born as little as 3 weeks apart! So basically that means.... TWINS. We couldn't be more thrilled and are so thankful that God has provided this opportunity to us.

We will find out this baby's gender in about 4 weeks. Oh, and I felt the baby move for the first time last night.