Our Own Christmas Miracle

I am a firm believer that every life created by God is special, full of purpose, and nothing short of miraculous. Well, this Christmas Tom and I were blessed with our own miracle of life. I posted previously how Christmas has always been an extra special time of year for us and this year was no exception. Here's the story of how we came to find out another baby is on the way.....

We spent time in New Jersey with Tom's family from the 20th to the 26th and honestly I felt fine the whole week, indulging in daily naps. My clue that something was amiss was Christmas Day when I woke from one of those naps to the horrific smell of shrimp. Now shrimp was one thing I could not stand to be around when I was pregnant with Tennyson. I didn't immediately think, "Oh my gosh, I must be pregnant." Instead it was more like, "Hmm, that's strange." My next "clue" was the following morning when I awoke at 3:00AM with an urgent need to use the bathroom. The same thing happened again at 5:00AM and then a little while later, while snuggling with my sweet little boy, I began to feel nauseous. THAT was my first real thought that something was up. The last time I got nauseous (aside from the stomach flu last March) was when I was pregnant with Tennyson.

Anyway, we packed up our things and were headed back to Virginia by 10:00AM. We stopped in Harrisburg, PA at the Cracker Barrel for a long, leisurely lunch and about an hour into our trip I really, really started feeling sick. Tom asked if he needed to pull over, but I assured him I wasn't going to throw up in the car. A cracked window, allowing the cold air in, did the trick and I soon felt better. But I still felt a little off for the rest of the trip. Finally, we got back home around 6:00PM. It was SO nice! (I am such a homebody and don't usually enjoy traveling.) We got unpacked, got Tennyson to bed, and settled down to watch "Elf." Tom and I ate a little bit of food and I immediately felt sick again. I had to find out! I marched right upstairs and took a pregnancy test. Sure enough it was positive! Even though we've been trying I was still shocked! I went downstairs to tell Tom (who had no idea why I had left the living room so abruptly). Needless to say, we were ecstatic and sat there in disbelief. The only person we told that night was his mom, as kind of a belated Christmas present, because I wanted to tell my family the next day in person. (That's for whole 'nother post!)

Yes, every baby is miraculous, but there was something extra special God did for us......we got pregnant without the use of any fertility drugs!!! I had them in the cabinet, but was waiting for the appropriate time to take them. Knowing that everything happened naturally was such an unexpected blessing. It was a....relief in a way. God did above and beyond, exceedingly more than we had ever imagined! We believe there are no such things as coincidences. So of course Tom and I attributed it to God's sense of humor when I discovered the day I posted about trying to conceive, was most likely the very day we conceived this most precious gift.