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A Mother's Day Greeting to you!
It's Mothers Day evening, and I am thinking about the events of the day. Going to church, and then out to brunch with my husband and daughter. Our precious Elisha, a little miracle that spent her first four years in the freezer. Today she sang in the choir after many months of practice, to stand in front of the church with all her friends and sing to honor her mother. It was a great day for me, personally.
Elisha wanted to wear a dress that I wore when I was 7 years old. We washed it, bleached it, sprayed it lightly with a bit a starch and steamed it with the iron set to "cotton" a.k.a. "hot". It turned out perfect, sort of like when God gets a hold of us, and does His "thing" and brings us into His Grace. We are all "made new", just like the dress Elisha wore today. The dress is 50 years old, but it looked brand new today! We had shopped for matching shoes, and a matching white flower for her hair. We had a wonderful day together, and she looked like an angel.
There were those other Mother's Days that were not so great. All the ones that preceded Elisha's birth. I wanted to say something about that. If you are reading this right now, and you are yet to hold that "bundle of joy" in your life, my heart goes out to you right now. I have suffered through those days. I know how it feels. It's like when you are a kid and you fall out of a tree or off a swing and you have the literal "wind knocked out of you". I would like to tell you a particular story.
My husband Jeff and I suffered multiple miscarriages, the last one, when I was 46. This child was a naturally conceived child and a "surprise" as the doctor's had told us it was "hopeless" between the two of us. So when my friend Dana called me and said she had a dream I was pregnant, she told me to get a pregnancy test kit. Reluctantly, I went and got one. I took the test, it was negative, as always, and I threw it away and called her to tell her she was wrong. She insisted I check the test again, so I went and fetched it from the waste paper basket and read it again. It WAS positive! We thought that was the miracle baby God had spoken to our hearts about. We were thrilled. A couple months later, I miscarried. We were crushed. So high, and then so low. I was faced with something unlike anything in my life. Either believe God and what He had been speaking to me, or go get grief counseling. When I recovered from the extreme shock of it all, I decided to go buy a cradle, and go with God's leading. I had a picture of it in my head. It was white. I drove up to the baby shop in North Bend, and there it was, in the window, just like in my imagination.
I had no idea how the baby would come to that cradle. Months passed by, and I wasn't getting any younger! Then one day, out of "no where" my husband Jeff was listening to Dr. James Dobson, and his Focus on the Family radio program. He was talking to a woman that had adopted someone else's remaining embryos from fertility treatments.She had a girl named Hannah. There were ten babies born in the US like this. Jeff came home, appeared in the kitchen with this news, and said,"That's IT"! And so it was. Elisha was the first such child born in Washington. (Making a long story short!)
The life lesson I learned was this. If God is speaking to you about something, believe Him, and act on it!. You don't have to buy a cradle. You can get a baby spoon. Anything that defies the natural and speaks to the future. Embryo adoption is but one way God may lead you. If so, I am here for you and your family. We will pray for you and with you. Be encouraged today, I am believing God for you, and the family you hope and pray for.
Maria D. Lancaster
Executive Director
Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park
425-214-4512
adoptanembryo@aol.com
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