Mike and I had been married 5 years when we had our last daughter, Jenna. Kayla was 2 1/2 when Jenna was born and we were convinced we were done. We had "permanent sterilization" and our family was complete! We didn't spend any time regretting our decision; we were just busy raising the two beautiful daughters God had entrusted to us!
Fast forward about 9 1/2 years and one day I said to Mike, "We should've had another one!" I felt perfectly safe saying that because it was not possible!! He SHOCKED me by saying "Yeah we should have. I wish we would have." I was shocked because I always teased him by saying I had to talk him into having a second child! We didn't really discuss it any more at that time but the idea had taken root! We talked about adoption, but its so expensive and with two growing daughters, we just couldn't swing it. We started discussing the possibility of a sterilization reversal.
I called a dr. in St. Louis who does that type of surgery and it was 10,000 dollars!!! Ok so we definitely took that as a NO! But thanks to the internet I found a dr. in the Chicago area who does the surgery as a ministry an it was only 1700!! Quite a big difference, but still alot of money, as anyone raising a family knows!!! (And we were kinda wanting a pool....
)The VERY NEXT DAY, Mike called from work and said "you are not going to believe this, but we were just told we could opt out of a small retirement plan that we'd tried out and I have (drum roll) 1700 dollars in my account!!!" We had our YES!!
We called and made the appt., the surgery was performed Dec. 12 and we started the roller coaster ride!!!
In March, our church hosted a Red Cross blood drive. I was talking the nurse and telling her that although I didn't think I was pregnant, we had been trying and would that be a problem for me giving blood? We got to talking and I told her a little of our story. She said "Oh, my daughter and her husband had that surgery and she is now 6 months pregnant!" I didn't know that nurse or her daughter, but that gave me hope!! There were many times over the next couple of months that I remembered that story when I was down!!
The beginning of May we took our youth group to a weekend-long concert. On the way home, we passed a sign that said "It's a Boy! Landon Michael!"
I called Mike ( we were traveling together, just in separate cars) and said "Do you think that was a sign from God that I'm pregnant, we're going to have a boy and name him Landon Michael?" (A name we had ALREADY picked out if God should bless us with a son!!)
Turns out I WAS pregnant as I found out a few days later in the bathroom of Taco Bell in Sparta!! I bought a cheap pregnancy test (and when I say cheap, think plastic dish, rubber glove and test stick!!) It was POSITIVE!! I went and got in line to order and I was BAWLING!! The people were probably thinking give this crazy lady whatever she wants!!!
We found out on August 27, 2003 (our 15th anniversary!!!)that we were having a boy! The pregnancy was pretty uneventful I LOVED being pregnant! I never thought I would have another child so I TREASURED every minute (ok well the peeing my pants part I could've skipped...)
January 8th, 2004 I went into labor around 1 am. Turns out it was EARLY labor so that made for a long day! Over the course of the day, I got to know my nurse, Ellen. We started comparing notes ( we were the same age, both Christians, both had 3 kids-two girls one boy!) So I told her about our reversal surgery and she said "Oh my gosh! My husband and I did that too and our youngest daughter is 6 months old now!!!" I said "You just never know who God will put in your path to give you hope!" and I told her about the nurse from the Red Cross blood drive and how that kept my spirits up through the months of trying to have a baby. Ellen said "You are kidding! My mom is a nurse with the Red Cross! " So she ran out to the hall and called her mom and said "Do you remember talking to a girl in Pinckneyville who was trying to have a baby? Well she's in here now!!!!" It was just so amazing! I know people will say "Wow, small world" but I know it's more than that! God had his hand in it all!!!
So I know that was really long, but I love to tell our story because it reminds me of just how GOOD God is! I love Landon so much, we all do! And I want him to have the desires of his heart (as you would know if you could see the pile of birthday presents he got!!) So how much more God, who is our heavenly Father, wishes to give us above and beyond what we could think or imagine!?!?! Landon is a blessing to us and worth every penny we spent on the roller coaster ride to have him!! And guess what? We also got our pool....
