The Inconvenient

Pregnancy sometimes happens at inconvenient times.  Trust me, I get that. I totally understand. It happened to me. I was 18.

During the last half of my junior year of high school, I had surgery. I missed 4 weeks of school. I had to drop classes like chemistry because I couldn't make up the labs and choir because it was a participatory class. It was difficult making up the credits my senior year. Consequently I was 1 1/2 credits short. I didn't graduate. In order to complete my education, I attended summer school. I found out I was pregnant. This was not a convenient time to become pregnant. I didn't finish high school.

I married, had a baby girl, and never received any government aid. No food stamps, or help with medical bills. Nothing.

Two years later, I was divorced and working 7 days a week as a single mom. I met a man and moved 1000 miles away with him and my daughter.  We didn't get along. After a couple of months, I move 1,000 miles back to my parent's home. Not only am I a single mom, but now I have no job. Two weeks later I find out I'm pregnant. Not a convenient time to become pregnant.

I reconcile with my boyfriend. We marry. We have a son.

Life wasn't easy. It never is. I became pregnant 3 more times, actually 4-one I miscarried. None were planned. None were convenient. We never received government assistance. I was a stay-at-home mom. I raised and cared for my children while my husband worked hard to pay the bills. We've been married for over 33 years.

What became of those inconvenient pregnancies? That first baby girl? She has two degrees, works full time as a hospice nurse,is married and raising 3 beautiful children. The difference she has made in the lives of our family but of her patients and their families is amazing. The times she held a grandmother's hand as she took her last breath, comforting her and not allowing her to die alone. Or her attentiveness in recognizing a father, close to death and alerting the family so they can be there for his last moments. The comfort she gives, the pain she alleviates, the prayers she prays wouldn't have happened if I had decided it was an inconvenient time to have a child. And truthfully, many will spend eternity in heaven because she is here.

That little boy? He could have been aborted. He earned a degree, married, went to law school and he and his wife are raising two beautiful daughters. He is making a difference in the lives of all he meets. I would love to be there at the end of his life to hear the untold stories told of how lives were changed because he is here.

I am deeply saddened by the inconvenient pregnancies that end in abortion. I don't believe life is ever an accident. God knows each and every one.

Those other 3 inconvenient pregnancies? The youngest, a girl, is getting married this summer. She has a great job, and graduated from college last year with a dual engineering degree. She is making a difference in lives.

The second to last, another daughter, graduated from college and married. She too had an inconvenient pregnancy. It happened right after she and her husband moved, and she began graduate school. She has a beautiful baby girl and will continue her education in women's health in the Fall. She will continue to make a difference in the lives of others.

The third inconvenient pregnancy resulted in a girl. She married in 2014. Three months before her big wedding, she found out she was pregnant. Not a convenient time to become pregnant. How would she ever fit in her dress?  She and her husband are currently raising a sweet baby boy. I have never seen a happier baby. She is making a difference.

Funny thing about these inconvenient pregnancies, they came on the heels of fertility issues. That surgery I had my junior year? It was for PCOS. I was left with partial ovaries and told I most likely would never be able to have a child.

That pregnancy that happened three months before the wedding? Yep, she was being treated for fertility issues.

The baby girl conceived when her mother began graduate school? In 2011, she had surgery for an 11 cm. dermoid cyst and lost one ovary.

We may think it is our right to conceive a life, or abort one at will. I believe life is a precious gift from the Father. We may go to extreme lengths to try to conceive, or try equally hard to prevent pregnancy but ultimately God is the author of life.

There's so much more I could share. I think I've made my point. Life matters.

Truthfully,

Joanne

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it." (Ps. 139:13-14)