Hannah Elizabeth

I've met several "Hannah Elizabeths" through the years thanks to the water aerobic class I teach to pregnant women. I met a most remarkable one this week. She is 45 years old and has tried to have a baby for 18 years. Can you imagine the pain and anguish of hoping and praying, working, testing, probing for 18 years? She had tests done and according to them there were no reasons why she couldn't get pregnant. She changed work from ICU to labor and delivery as they were trying to get pregnant. She got pregnant twice through artificial insemination and lost both babies. She moved back to ICU which was now for her a less stressful environment.

In October of last year, she gave in and gave it all up fully to the Lover, saying that if he wanted her to have a child, that she needed to have a sign by January. She and her husband bought land out of town and started work on their dream home with plans of adopting a child internationally in the next year.

Then she found out she was pregnant- naturally!!! She had conceived the very month she had given it all over to the Lover! She is now 23 weeks into the pregnancy. Her face glows with joy and expectancy. Throughout the class, she tenderly cradled her belly. She is radiant in her beauty and faith. It is not a flippant faith, but one that has been carved out in pain, perseverance and trial. I don't know why she had to go through all the waiting and heartache, but she affirms that this child she now carries is a miracle child. She still has struggles. She is scared to fully open up to this baby with the lingering fear that something may still go wrong, but I pray her fears will drift away like the morning mist and that this mother will join the chorus of the other Hannahs, Elizabeths, Rachels, Tamars-- those women who have cried out until their cry was answered and birthed their babies through the labor of love, faith and perseverance.

Blessings on these women and their babies of promise.