After consulting my brother on the mission (and The Husband,
of course), we decided it would be fun to announce our exciting news on
Christmas day! Even better? We devised a plan to have my missionary brother
share the news when he called for Christmas.
I was so excited. It took all of
my strength not to spill the beans as it seemed so many golden opportunities to
share the news kept presenting themselves.
During my month of waiting to tell, I felt such a peace and
relief that I had not felt in a long time.
My doctor gave me a prescription for progesterone, which was to help
maintain my pregnancy and prevent miscarriage.
With the progesterone, seeing that wee heart beat, no longer having to
worry about when I was ovulating, what medications to take next, when to… uh… “try”…. I was on cloud 9. I was free.
A few weeks before Christmas, my mom asked me to come over
one night. She sounded somber on the
phone. She asked me to bring along The
Husband too.
We arrived at my parent’s home to find both my mom and dad
sitting on the couch in the living room.
Sensing bad news, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
My mom explained that she had just been to the doctor that
day. She had been diagnosed with uterine
cancer.
I was shocked. She
went on to tell me how she had been diagnosed, when she first sensed something
was wrong, and that she needed surgery to remove the cancer. Her surgery would take place a few days after
Christmas.
My mom, ever the optimist, was trying her very best to put
on a brave face… but I could see past it.
She was hurting and scared. How
could she not be? I sat there trying to
conjure up a way to bring her some sort of solace. The first thing that came to mind was sharing
the pregnancy news. I wanted to so
badly… but I stopped myself... the only thing better than a woman with cancer
finding out her infertile daughter is pregnant, is when a woman with cancer
finds out her infertile daughter is pregnant on CHRISTMAS.
This news made me look forward to the “big reveal” with even
more excitement.
On Christmas Day, my family all gathered around the phone to
call my brother in Tahiti. He was on speakerphone
the whole time, as was our usual custom (we don’t like to miss a word he says). I had suggested to my mom earlier in the day
that we videotape our call to him, just to listen to later on. My mom later told me she thought that was a
little weird, but she obliged anyway.
One by one the phone was passed from sibling to sibling,
each of us asking questions and telling stories. Finally it was my turn to speak with
Taylor. The very first thing he asked me
was “So, are you getting fat yet?”. My
mom looked at me in horror (you never EVER ask a girl who struggles with her
appearance if she’s looking fat). I just
smiled and told him “Not yet”. He then
asked if he could give the family our special Christmas present. My stomach was in a knot; I was so excited
for my family to hear the news. I gave
Taylor the go-ahead.
“For the past 8 weeks, Torrey has been pregnant!”, he
shouted out.
The room immediately erupted into a symphony of chaotic
noise. Screaming, sighing, shouting, crying, laughing! My mom started crying. My brother Jake hugged his wife and shouted, “Now we can have a baby too!” My little sister burst into tears. My stoic dad sat silently as a few tears
welled up in his eyes. My grandma, who
didn’t hear Taylor, asked what was going on.
“Torrey’s pregnant”, my grandpa explained. My grandma gave a huge sigh of relief.
Brother Jake, His wife Steph, Me, Mom and Dad |
It was epic. I was so
happy that I had caught the whole thing on camera. What an amazing experience to have
documented. I was also thrilled that we were
able to include my little brother in Tahiti in the excitement. “Best day of my life!”, I thought.
I look back on these events and the timing of it all, and I
do believe there was some majorly divine intervention happening in our
family. Tender mercies of the Lord. My definition of a “Tender Mercy”, is when an
event or occurrence takes place and things seem to randomly work out just right. To the untrained eye, the occurrences may
seem to happen by a happy accident or some may give credit to coincidence… but
upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the Lord had his hand in it. (See an awesome talk here about Tender
Mercies).
Had my mom shared her news of uterine cancer with me while I
was still struggling with infertility… I know I could not have handled it. I no doubt would have been very angry, but I
imagine the news would have ended in a major emotional meltdown (envision me,
on the floor, curled up in the fetal position… THAT kind of melt down). Finding out I was pregnant before hearing her
diagnosis was a tender mercy.
My sharing the pregnancy news with my mom before her surgery
may have given her just that little extra bit of hope to help her through
surgery and recovery. The grandbaby news
before surgery was a tender mercy.
Complete and total divine intervention… tender mercies of
the Lord. Wouldn’t you agree?
1 comment:
This made me cry. I had never thought of it this way... But it definitely was a tender mercy for all of us. you are such an amazing person, Torrey!
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