Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

You might want to sit down for this one. That image is no joke: Senia is pregnant. This comes as a big surprise to us, too, but we did not have a lot of time to let those feelings set in before the plot became a bit more complicated.

Senia is certainly not prime child-bearing age. And along with that age comes a heightened risk of miscarriage. Not 24hrs after confirming she was pregnant, we had a miscarriage scare. Now, skipping the details, I can just say it would not have been a scare to someone who knows more than we do.

After a couple days of researching, we realized that it was not a miscarriage and all was well. We had about a day to relax and start to level out our emotions, and then, we had real (and almost certain) signs of a miscarriage: she was passing blood clots.

There was nothing traumatic and no active bleeding, so there was no need to go in to the doctor just yet. We did talk to a doctor, and confirmed that, at her age, most likely these are signs of a miscarriage.

It was a few days before we were able to set up a regular ObGyn appointment, and she confirmed the same message. She ordered a sonogram to give us more information.

So, what you see in the photo above is part of the story, but seeing the moving image said a lot more. That orange-seed-sized little baby has a healthy, beating heart! So, I can enthusiastically say, we are STILL pregnant. We are very early on, maybe eight weeks.

The process of thinking we were losing this little innocent one quickly wiped away all the surprise we initially felt; there was not time or extra emotional capacity to be surprised. Hearing the report of a healthy baby, when all the statistics and experience would have suggested a miscarriage, only served to bring us more joy in that life growing in her womb.

Yes, of course, thinking of going back to diapers and sleepless nights and lugging around all those baby accessories was not on the agenda. And yes, there is still concern about going through this process in our 40s. However, sparing the details, I can say that if we are pregnant, it must mean that God really wanted this to happen. So, we will walk forward with faith that we will have the grace we need to complete the path ahead.