Our story.

I'm learning how God writes our stories differently. When we were first having trouble getting pregnant, I'd lurk on some of the infertility blogs, reading stories of bad doctors, insensitive family members, treatments successful and treatments failed. Women would write about their "two week wait" and have posts filled with more acronyms than I could keep straight. It was helpful, though, to get an idea about what others have gone through. It was also extremely helpful to find those blogs of other believers, also going through infertility, to see how they dealt with the disappointment, and continued trusting in God's goodness. Often I'd read and see that an infertility blog had become a pregnancy blog and then a parenting blog. Sometimes this happened through treatments, with drugs or IVF, and then there were those others. "Well, we couldn't get pregnant and then suddenly we did, when we weren't trying/taking a break/adopting...." I, of course, kept hoping that maybe that would be our story.

The truth is, though, that I don't think I'd be pregnant right now without the help we got from our doctor. (Acknowledging, of course, that all things are possible with God.) We used some medicine and did IUI (that's intrauterine insemination for those newbies to infertility). I write this because there may be a few readers out there who have also had problems getting pregnant, and I don't want people to think that we just suddenly got pregnant without any help. I also want to write about it because IUI doesn't get nearly as much press as IVF, but definitely does work. In most of the blogs I read, IUI never worked. I was convinced before going into it that it probably wouldn't work.

For a variety of reasons, Jeff and I had decided we wouldn't do IVF, and so IUI was really our only option before adoption. I knew I didn't want to do it more than a few times, although during the month we did it, I was already thinking that I couldn't handle the stress of having to do it all again, if it didn't work. I was very surprised and excited that it worked the first time. We feel incredibly blessed that God used IUI to help us get pregnant. And if anyone has any questions about it, please send me an email.

So, yes, God writes stories differently. But I remain convinced that all things work together for our good, and am still continually reminding myself that "he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things."