Overcoming Infertility Diagnosis | Sweet Hour Of Prayer

My most personal podcast yet. A powerful story of how we overcame the blow of an infertility diagnosis to have our son. Truly a testament to the power of prayer. I pray this encourages those who are struggling with what can feel like a very lonely journey.

Transcript

I've shared a few times that we have a son,

Henry,

Who's two,

And I have not shared about the miracle of how he came to be a part of our family.

This is going to be a story involving infertility,

And so if that's something that's uncomfortable for you or something that maybe you want to wait till later and listen to,

I'm just kind of putting that out there right now.

I'm not going to get too heavy into it,

But I know it's a sensitive topic for a lot of us.

Hi,

Welcome to the April Sings a Lot podcast,

Where I share a story,

A song,

And invite you to sing along.

This is my story,

This is my song.

My husband and I got married,

And like most people,

We wanted to wait a few years before we started trying.

And then when we did start trying,

It wasn't happening,

And so we went to some doctor's appointments and found out rather quickly and clearly that we would not be able to get pregnant.

We didn't have all the ingredients to make a baby.

So in a way,

That is a blessing,

Because there are many people that have unexplained infertility where there is no clear diagnosis as to why it's not happening.

And I can't even imagine what that is like.

So I say that it is a blessing because we got a clear answer that it wasn't going to happen for us.

And while that is kind of just nice to know,

It's also heartbreaking if it's something that you've wanted for so long.

And so I started Googling options because we still wanted to be parents and we just needed to figure out how.

And I found out about embryo adoption.

And that is a rather fairly new kind of adoption that has started because people that undergo fertility treatments and create embryos often create more embryos than they use.

And so let's say you create 10 embryos and you do a few embryo transfers and you have a few successful pregnancies and then you have your two or three or four or however many kids and you know that you're done building your family,

But you still have embryos left.

Well,

You don't want those embryos in storage forever.

Adoption is a wonderful option so that another family can get a chance at having children.

So while I wasn't able to get pregnant,

I was able to be pregnant.

And we decided that embryo adoption was the way that we were going to start our family.

It's a long process,

As you may imagine,

Because you have the process of adoption,

All of that paperwork to do,

And then you also have the fertility stuff to do,

All that,

Doctor's appointments and all of that.

So I like to say it's the best of both worlds,

But it's also the complication of both worlds.

So we have the blessing of adopting and having a child who is someone like I was able to be pregnant with him,

Which is amazing.

But he also has biological siblings that are a part of another family that someday he will get to have a relationship with,

Which is just so cool.

So that's really neat.

Since we made it through all the paperwork part,

It is a really neat thing.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm going to backtrack.

We prayed for a child for many years and believed that we were supposed to be parents,

And it just wasn't clear how that was supposed to happen.

And we did eventually come to learn about embryo adoption and then find an adoption agency and then get matched with a family and then get delivery of the embryos.

Like it did eventually all happen,

But it took years for all of that to happen.

And during that time,

There were many,

Many times when it didn't look like it would happen.

It was so discouraging.

And my prayer became,

God,

You are not a cruel God.

You're not.

So you would not give me the desire to be a mom without also giving me a way to be a mom.

So there will,

I want you like either show me the way or take away the desire because I can't live in limbo.

And so I want to offer that prayer up right now to you in case there's something that you're feeling like it in limbo about right now,

Something that you're desiring,

That you feel really called to,

But that hasn't happened yet or that isn't happening in the way you thought it would happen because clearly we didn't set out to start our family through embryo adoption.

It happened that way.

And I'm so glad that it did.

Oh my gosh,

It's been amazing.

But 10 years ago,

That was not even on our radar as an option.

And we had to be introduced to the idea and then we had to make peace with the idea.

Like it's a frustrating thing for me when people say,

Like when people find out that we got an infertility diagnosis and then say,

Oh,

Well,

You'll just have to adopt or you just get to adopt or why don't you just adopt like,

Like it's just a knee jerk reaction and like the very next thing that you do.

And that was not the case for us.

We had to take time and mourn the loss of the way we thought we would have kids.

Like it wasn't something that we could just switch and go in a different direction.

And maybe other people can.

For us,

It was important to be sad for a little while.

Like it's not happening the way we always dreamed it would happen.

And that's a sad thing.

So we sat with that for a while.

We went to counseling for a while.

That was huge.

Very helpful.

I would highly recommend it.

And and then we started looking for what might be the option that felt good for us.

And there are many options out there.

And there was one that just felt right.

And so we pursued that.

And then there were many adoption agencies that did embryo adoption.

So we interviewed them,

Figured out which one felt right,

And then kept going with that process.

But it was years and years and years to get to the place where we were able to be pregnant.

Like years.

And that whole time,

My prayer became either take away this desire or show me the way to make it happen.

Like show me the way.

Show me the path to parenthood.

Because it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

So help me to have peace with the path that I am presented with.

Our song today is Sweet Hour of Prayer.

And I'm choosing this song because prayer is genuinely the only thing that got me through.

There were many wonderful people believing in us and praying for us.

But ultimately,

It was about our relationship with God and our conversations with him that got us through.

So if you're going through a hard time,

I invite you to spend some time in prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

That calls me from a world of care.

And bids me at my Father's throne.

Take all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief.

And oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

The joys I feel,

The bliss I share of those whose anxious spirits burn with strong desires for thy return.

With such I hasten to the place where God my Savior shows his face.

And gladly take my station there and wait for thee.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet hour of prayer.

Thy wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since he bids me seek his face,

Believe his word and trust his grace,

I'll cast on him my every care and wait for thee.

Sweet hour of prayer.

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Sweet story of hope. 🩵