Gratitude

Exactly one year ago today, I walked out of the BYU Student Health Center holding a slip of paper that confirmed I was PREGNANT! I was so overwhelmed with joy that a year after our miscarriage, we were finally expecting again and this time with better odds of keeping the baby. Well, we kept her and our lil' Miss is as cute as ever!!! Four and a half months old, she is now smiling, grinning, giggling, cooing and "singing." She is the most precious thing in the world to us and we feel so blessed. Because of my immense gratitude today, I wanted to share a little of our story:

Paul and I got married on August 9, 2009 and immediately began hoping for a baby. More than anything in the world, we wanted to become parents and begin creating our own little family. Five months after our wedding, we were elated to discover that I was pregnant! Little did we know it would result in a heart-wrenching miscarriage and a time filled with doubt, insecurity and pain. Among mixed advice from various doctors and professionals, we decided to wait only a month before attempting to become pregnant again. More than six months after that, we still hadn't conceived and my worries continued to grow. Considering my age and the fact that we had already miscarried, we discussed going to go see a specialist. A series of events led us to our doctor, Larry Andrew, and we went to see him in January of 2011. Only two months later, on March 14, we found out that we were expecting our baby girl! Even at that, our story was still just beginning, and it involved early ultrasounds, blood tests and ten days of progesterone shots. Though we faced a few small scares throughout the pregnancy, it was overall uneventful and on October 28, 2011, I delivered a beautiful and healthy (though early) five pound bundle of joy. Our story has really only begun and we are so happy to finally have a baby to call our own!

I am so filled with gratitude today that what once seemed to be an overwhelming challenge has been conquered and rewarded with daughter of our very own. She is everything to us and we are thrilled to be her parents! We are hoping to soon give her little brothers and sisters and to fill our home with children. There is no greater blessing in this life than to help create little bodies for our Heavenly Father's children so they can experience this earth life. We are so happy and grateful to begin this great work. Thank God for the beautiful institution of the family!

Photos courtesy of Samuel Silver, Copyright 2012.