Premature Ovarian Failure A Diagnosis Given my Daughter and Her Miracle Pregnancy

Four years ago my daughter met her knight in shining armor. They had a story book engagement and a beautiful wedding although we had a monsoon on her wedding day!!!!. Our pastor said as long as the bride is calm everything will work out well and in this case he was very much right.

Aside from muddy shoes and wondering if the dance floor was going to float away, everyone had a wonderful time and the wedding was beautiful. They went on a great honeymoon and began their married life in a home not far from my husband and I.

About two years later they wanted to start their family. Having met on a medical mission trip in Africa they both had a heart for adoption but wanted to have a child on their own first.

My daughter is a very devoted Christian who loves the Lord. She was ready to conceive and have the baby of her dreams. This was one time in her life when God said no. It was devastating. Four doctors told her she would never conceive. They gave her a diagnosis of Premature Ovarian Failure or POF, a word I have become very familiar with.

The doctors tried all the normal protocols for infertile couples ie. clomid, HCG, FSH ,etc short of in vitro. but to no avail. When she had taken so many hormone shots she was miserable the doctor told her that there were no eggs to fertilize and no hope of ever conceiving without miscarriage. Essentially he said you won't have children of your own naturally.

She enlisted three more opinions and was told every time she would never under any circumstance have children of her own. One compassionate (not) physician told even if she ever did become pregnant she would not be able to carry the baby to term because it would have so many abnormalities.

Being a believer my daughter now depressed, and devastated went to God and gave it to Him. I am not saying she did not hurt. She was a wreck and asked God the question so many women do at a time like this, why? She always took good care of herself and had the financial ability to raise a child.

Liz and I started getting acupuncture treatments. I have Lupus and I knew it would help me relax and Liz had read acupuncture could help with conception. It was during that time that we both were told, on the exact same day, but by different people, about an organization called Snowflake. Snowflake places embryos or I prefer infants with infertile couples wanting to adopt them. These embryos come from loving parents that have had infertility troubles, gone through in vitro and have not used all their eggs. Rather than destroy them they donate them to other couples. They are thawed and placed in an adoptive mom's uterus to hopefully implant.

We I are both pro life and were very interested. We hate the idea of embryos being discarded as trash when we believe they are human beings at fertilization.

Liz and her husband,Greg decided to try Snowflake. They started the paperwork and after more hormone treatments to prepare her body for a pregnancy, Liz was implanted with 4 tiny embryo's. It started out as a relaxed procedure for a Wednesday afternoon until the embryologist called and said the babies were not doing well with the thaw. They had been frozen many years almost 10!!!! He needed to implant the tiny babies immediately to give them the best chance for survival. Liz and the biological mother had been writing and praying for one another by this time so she already felt a bond to these little ones.

My frightened and tearful daughter bravely went in with her husband that Monday and had all four babies implanted. She was on bedrest for a week

It was a sweet and emotional time for the whole family. Friends brought meals and prayed and I spent time with my daughter as she bravely tried to incubate the tiny babies.

After about 7 days the doctors told her to take a pregnancy test and sadly she had lost the babies.

My daughter is a special person and not one to feel sorry for herself for long periods of time. After several weeks recovery she was ready to consider adoption.

As I told you before Liz and her husband had a soft spot in their hearts for the black children they had met in Africa so they started adoption proceedings without any stipulations as to the sex or race of their adopted baby.

Within weeks they were ready to bring home their new baby daughter. We had to stay in the state she was born in for at least a week so our entire family went to my mother-in-law's beach house for 7 days to bond with our new little family member. She was perfect and such a sweet baby with a quiet happy demeanor

Liz, Greg and their new daughter started their life together and grew daily in love..

Not conceiving your own child is quite an adjustment. You wonder will you love the baby as much as you should. The first week was very emotional and I assured Liz she would soon not be able to think of life without her new adopted daughter in it.. Within a month they were so in love with Hannah and so was the rest of the family. This was April.

We had a wonderful summer with little Hannah and the holidays soon came. We had 3 precious granddaughters to celebrate with. Liz's twin brother has two daughters also. We felt so blessed and had a wonderful Christmas.

In early January Liz called me and mentioned some strange feelings going on with her body. I would not even let my mind go to pregnancy but knew she needed to do a pregnancy test. I did not want to set my daughter up for more pain. She bought several kits and had 3 positive pregnancy tests.

We were ecstatic. God had blessed my little girl with her miracle. She was going to carry her own child. She was very nauseous the first 4 months. Being a pharmacist she knew how careful she needed to be but finally took some medication for the vomiting..

I can remember how sweet her cravings were, anything salty especially Chick fil A sandwiches. She grew in girth daily despite the constant vomiting and I started wondering if she was having twins since I had them and there was a very strong family history for fraternal twins. My great grandmother had 3 sets including my grandfather and aunt..

She was not having twins but a healthy baby girl. Liz is tall and very slim. She began to look like she had somehow swallowed a huge beach ball. It was so cute.

One evening my eldest daughter and I were visiting and Liz was wearing sweat pants and her belly was poking out. I just stared and marveled at how beautiful she was. I had come to accept I would never ever experience this with her. The awe and beauty of pregnancy is such a miracle. I laughed secretly because she thought she looked huge!!!

We keep our adopted daughter, Hannah every Friday while Liz works. One Friday when she did not think she could carry the baby another day she brought Hannah over and woke us up with a cup of coffee." Mom I think I might be in labor but I don't know" . I have been a labor and delivery nurse. I jumped out of bed and we started timing contractions. She was ready to go open the pharmacy but I discouraged it. Her contractions were frequent but there was not a consistent pattern and she had still not reached her exact due date although she was considered term at 39 weeks.

Her pain tolerance was awesome which also had me confused. I encouraged her to sit and relax and just time the contractions for an hour. They remained erratic and Liz could talk easily through them, none lasting more than a minute. Finally they were so close I encouraged her to call the doctor. They told her to come to the office to be checked.

Greg picked her up and I got dressed. She threw up at the office, a sign of being in true labor. They found my little trooper to be 4 cm dilated and fully effaced. (That is the thinning of the cervix.) A women has to be to10 centimeters dilated and fully effaced to deliver.

They rushed off to the hospital and my husband and I met them there soon after. I had worked at the hospital and knew my way around. As I got to her room the nurses whisked me in. Liz was already pushing. I leaned down and whispered some encouragement to her and she pushed one last time delivering Isabelle!!! I had just made it in time!!! Three total pushes. Her water had broken while she was dressing for delivery. She never had the epidural she planned for ( not that she even needed it). I was so proud of her. Her labor had lasted about 4 hours, maybe!!!

Isabelle was a healthy 7lb but a little floppy. I had the only camera in the room and had taken a few discreet photos of her birth but my eyes were now on the baby not yet crying. I watched and held my breath for what seemed like an eternity. I was beginning to panic when Liz noticed my absence and called out "Is the baby ok?" Immediately Isabelle began to wail and was soon in Lizzie's waiting arms. It was so beautiful and I felt so blessed to be able to share in this miracle As I left the room to tell my husband the good news and give Liz and Greg time alone with Isabelle. I thanked God for the awesome Miracle I had just witnessed.I have assisted on hundreds of deliveries in my life but none come close to witnessing your daughter give birth to the child she thought she would never have. Yes Miracles do still happen.

God can do anything. He could have given my daughter a baby from the start, but by having gone through the pain and difficulty we all learned an important truth. God is faithful. It may not be in the way we humans would do it but He hears our prayers, knows our needs and supplies them as He alone knows will make us more like Him.

Our faith in God has grown over these past few months and we have such a deeper appreciation for human life than we ever had before. The Lord told Elizabeth and Greg not now and they waited and were richly rewarded in His timing. We have little Isabelle and Hannah because of His wisdom.

I wish I could say I will never doubt again but I am human and a sinner and know I will fall short time and time again but maybe one day I will get it right.

Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.

As I reread Elizabeth and Greg's story it makes me think about how many times miracles have occurred in our lives and we have just past them off as coincidence. The farther away it gets from the occurrence the less likely are we to even appreciate or think of them as God's Divine Presence in our lives.

I wonder how many times I have missed a green light or made a wrong turn when I was being protected from something that might have ended in a car accident or worse. These times have probably occurred more times than not and have actually been God's divine presence protecting me and my loved ones. Often times we look at things in our lives as inconveniences but when we stop and realize God's Holy Spirit is living within us and His protection is with us that we begin to realize things happen in our lives that are more than just coincidence. Maybe if we spent more time listening for Him, feeling His holy presence and even journaling we would begin to see how many miracles have already happened in our lives.

I have seen and been through some sad events in my life and I can't explain God's reasoning. But I have one assurance. He is in control. He does perform miracles and one day I will understand it all. Yes Miracles do Happen. He does answer prayer and when He does it is beautiful and perfect.

Names have been changed to protect the family's privacy.