Katarina Story - A Birth Celebrated

I have shared my daughter's story in other places, and on other blogs in the past, but I thought that today would be a fitting day to share it with all of you...

A Katarina Story

I found out I was pregnant on a Friday night using a home pregnancy test. Thomas and I were so excited. He even put the pregnancy test in the freezer just in case we needed it. I don't know what he thought we would do with it, but first-time parents can be a little crazy. (Don't worry, I cleaned the freezer!) We started dreaming about baby names right away.

The following Sunday night I started having horrible cramps and some bleeding. We went to the emergency room, and they said I was definitely pregnant but needed an ultrasound to make sure it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy. They set up an appointment with a doctor for the next morning.

The doctor was very nice and friendly. But once she started the ultrasound, and looked at the screen, she didn't seem very happy. Then she excused herself.

A few minutes later she came back in the room with two other doctors who also looked at the screen and did a lot of head shaking, before they all went outside together. The first doctor came back in and said I was definitely more than 6 weeks along and there should be a heartbeat, but there wasn't one. Also, my uterus was misshapen. She said that I should immediately get a DNC because without a heartbeat it wasn't a child, just a mass.

Thomas and I were heartbroken and shocked. I wanted to go home and pray and think about it before I decided to let her do surgery on me. Surgery is a big deal. I asked her if I really had to have the DNC right away.

These are her exact words, because I will never forget them, "If you leave the office today, you can have an appointment to come back next Monday for the procedure. But I am warning you, you will miscarry and you very well could bleed to death. If you leave today without the DNC and die, it won't be my fault."

We left anyway, and went home scared and depressed. We didn't have insurance, and didn't know who else to go see, or what to do. We just started praying, and cried all night.

The next day, Thomas went to work. He was up on a customer's roof crying and praying while he trimmed their trees when he had an incredible peace come over him, and he heard from the Lord, "I have servants who sit outside of abortion clinics and offer help to mothers. Talk to them." Thomas called me and said, "Stop crying, I heard from the Lord. I don't know what it means, or how we are going to find one of these people, but I know that God has a plan."

When Thomas told me what he had heard from the Lord, I immediately had a person's name come to my mind. It was a woman I had known for a long time before I was married, Marcia Frame, but Thomas didn't know her. I called Marcia and poured out the whole story. She said she would call her OB-GYN and see what could be done. I told her that there was no way he would see me because we didn't have any insurance.

Ten minutes later her doctor personally called me. He told me not to worry about the insurance - it would be taken care of. He wanted me to come to his office on the next Monday so he could do an ultrasound. If I needed the DNC, he said he would do it, but until then he told me not to worry. He also told me go to the emergency room if I had any serious issues before Monday, and tell them he was my doctor so he could meet me there. I could hardly believe it. That conversation was like a tiny ray of light.

This day was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and our church always had a special prayer service on that night every year. Our pastor knew what was happening, and when I went that evening the church prayed for me. The next day, the morning sickness (or in my case the all day sickness) started.

On Monday we went to Dr. LaRose's office. He did an ultrasound, and it was a totally different picture.

A healthy little heartbeat and a perfectly shaped uterus!

He told me nothing was wrong with the baby, and I was going to be fine. A few months later, he got the copies of the ultrasound pictures from the other doctor's office and showed us that they had done the ultrasound correctly, but my body had definitely changed between the first and second ultrasounds.

It was a miracle.

I threw up constantly through the whole nine months I was pregnant. I had to go to the hospital for many iv treatments due to extreme dehydration when I got to the point that I couldn't even keep water down. It certainly wasn't an easy pregnancy, but in the end, a precious little girl was born, healthy and wonderful. Katarina Hope.

Katarina means purity.
Hope, because there is hope in Jesus, and even when things look dark, He has a plan.

Today my sweet Katarina turns seven years old!

I love you Katarina. I can't wait to see all the growing and maturing and wonderful things you do while you are seven.
It is going to be an incredible year!

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