…daniel and april

…daniel and april

Thursday, May 1, 2014

the struggles…and the blessings...

2013 was not our best year. Daniel and I have been married for 5 1/2 years…and we have never had a year like last year. 
We moved 4 hours away from our families (very hard for me).  Had a miscarriage last March. Daniels parents were going through a divorce (even though we know divorce is common, it was a shock to us both so it was very difficult). We have been trying to get pregnant for a couple years now, and started fertility treatments a year ago (lots of shots and surgeries and medicines).  All of this together was a struggle on our marriage, and it was very hard on Daniel and I. We grew apart when we should have been growing closer. But we each had our issues. He was dealing with his parents and I was dealing with not being able to get pregnant. They say first year of marriage can be hard…but our first year was a BREEZE compared to last year!!! 
But we made it through. Stronger than ever. Closer than ever.

and 2014 has been a wonderful year so far!

We found out that we are expecting!!!! PRAISE THE LORD PRAISE THE LORD!!!
In early March after months on shots and our 4th IUI…we are FINALLY pregnant!!!  This is such an answered prayer. It has been a long 2 years.  And we would not be where we are today without the support, and encouragement, and love, and prayers from our family and friends. Y'all are amazing. and we thank you…from the bottom of our hearts.  It will mean more to us than you will ever know!
I went into the doctor on a Tuesday for blood work. That morning before I left for school daniel said 'call me with the results', like I had done for the past year! We were pretty used to hearing, your blood work is negative. So when my sweet nurse Frannie called, and said screamed,  YOU'RE PREGNANT!!! i did not believe her!  I probably made her repeat it 5 times before it actually hit me!! I immediately called Daniel when I hung up from Frannie and told him he was going to be a dad!!! I wanted to jump through the phone and hug him so tight…I am finally making the love of my life a dad.  I could hear his smile through the phone!! :)  Telling Daniel we were pregnant will forever be one of my favorite memories.
Funniest part of this story is that on the Monday before this Tuesday…we decided to get a dog/puppy! We have been wanting to for so long so we did it. We picked out our little GoldenDoodle puppy on Monday and I was picking her back up on Tuesday. and were so excited!!!  As you can imagine when we found out our news on Tuesday we were a little overwhelmed about going from a family of 2 to 4 in one day.  But we love her to death!!!

Meet Ellie!



Tuesday night we decided to tell our families the wonderful news!!! They all knew we got the puppy Tuesday and were all requesting pictures…so this is the picture we sent them….

They LOVED it!!!  Our families are OVER THE MOON excited for us!!!

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We went in to our fertility doctor for the first ultrasound on April 2nd.
We could not wait for this day. We wanted to hear the heartbeat SO bad and were so anxious for this day to finally arrive. Daniel picked me up at school at 9:30 and we talked the whole way there about how excited we were!!
My nurse Frannie put us in a room and as I laid there on the table waiting for the ultrasound tech to come in I just prayed there was a good strong heartbeat and that everything was okay. It felt like 5 hours of waiting for her to come in but I know it was only 5 minutes.
My ultrasound tech, Sabrina, my nurse, Frannie, and our doctor, Dr. Koulianos were all in the room. Sabrina found the heartbeat and it was the most amazing sound I had ever heard! Laying there holding Daniels hand listening to our baby was a moment I will never forget. And then Sabrina said…"oh. and here is another heartbeat!!"
After two long years of trying God has blessed us TWICE!!!! We are expecting TWINS!! We give GOD all the Glory and couldn't be happier for our 2 little miracles!! :)

We sent this picture to our families to let them know we were expecting TWINS!

And this is the picture we posted on social media to let the world know we were expecting!

I was so thankful that I had an amazing team of doctors and nurses that helped me achieve pregnancy. It was very bittersweet being released from their office to my OB. Daniel and I will be forever grateful to them and never ever forget all they did for us.
It took us a little over 2 years, which seemed very scary and doubtful at the time, but now I feel UNBELIEVABLY blessed to become pregnant within 2 years. The infertility struggle is an indescribable struggle that I hope no one has to go through. I will continue to pray for husbands and wives and families dealing with fertility problems.  My heart goes out and aches for those struggling with infertility, but just know that God can work miracles. He IS a God that answers prayers.