"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed.
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done."
We sang this hymn ("Count your many blessings") at church last Sunday and it got me thinking about how many things I have to be thankful for. So for the next two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I'd like to document the many things--both big and small, silly and serious--that I have to be grateful for this year.
The first thing I am thankful for is my fertility. No seriously. It sounds weird but it really is something I am so, so grateful for. It was around this time last year that David and I decided that we wanted a baby. The time was right and we were ready. So we tossed out all our birth control methods, counted my cycle and went to town. It only took one try. Honestly. One try. It takes some people months. Years. Sometimes it never happens. But for us....a month. And in those agonizing two weeks--a whole two weeks!--that I waited to take a pregnancy test, I thought how awful and horrible and soul-crushingly hard it would be to want something so bad and be disappointed every time. To get that negative sign and know you'd have to be patient, oh so very patient, to try again and face the possible disappointment or supreme elation once again.
In reading about pregnancy, fertility, and implantation, I realized how shockingly difficult it is to get pregnant. I mean, it seems like it should be easy. People have been doing it for thousands of years with no help. Lots of people end up pregnant without wanting to or even trying to. But it amazed me to learn just how many little things need to be juuuust right for that one tiny sperm to meet a ready and willing egg that results in a viable embryo. A lot of things can go wrong.
I have many friends who struggled for years to get pregnant. Who are still struggling and are doing everything they can and spending lots of money to get something which came so easily for David and me. And now, a year later, I have the most perfect and beautiful baby girl anyone could ever ask for. It truly is a miracle.
So yes, I am thankful for my fertility. I only hope I'm not so fertile that Zara ends up with a little baby brother or sister before I'm ready for the next one.
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1 comment:
What a great idea! And thank goodness there are people like you out there who remember Thanksgiving and the purpose of it. :) I agree with you so much about being grateful for fertility. Of the 3 pregnancies I've had, each one has happened the 1st month. I can't imagine the agony that people feel when they can't get pregnant, I almost feel too blessed. It's so hard to watch friends struggle with it, so it's great to show proper gratitude.
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