Peace like a river in my soul

These past few days have been some of the hardest days of my life. There were so many days that I couldn't even get out of bed. Ive never known such pain and such agony. Ive cried, Ive screamed, Ive cried some more. I felt as if i would never know joy again, I mean true joy. Ive begged and pleaded with God to take away my pain to replace my broken heart with joy and happiness. Its been days since I felt "God's presence" in my life. I wondered where He was and why He had left me. What did I do wrong for this to not work. But in the end all I wanted was peace and joy back in my life.
This morning on my way to work I once again prayed for peace and joy, for God to heal my heart. The day didn't start off great I was still so sad and down. When I went to lunch I had a voicemail from my dad that said he was in Evansville and wanted to eat lunch. This is where my day got better, you see I LOVE my dad! He is the BEST listener and he always gives the best advice. He is so positive and uplifting! After lunch we walked down the hall and we talked about how I was doing. We talked about healing and how one day I would be ok, not back to normal because my life will never be the same but one day I would be ok. It was my first sign of hope. He said you know there is a reason for this, you know you were chosen to do this for a reason. (Have people told me this already, yes! But sometimes you really hear it when your ready to hear it) We walked some more and he said the most important thing " its going to be ok" Yes it is!!! Its going to be ok. The world didn't end, people didn't stop breathing because my heart was broken. I held my head up and continued my day with a little more joy. On my way home I finally broke! I finally praise the Lord for what he had done. Yes I thanked God for taking my babies. I praised HIS name that HIS will was done and not mine. I shouted "thank you" for answering my prayers. I got pregnant, when every doctor said we wouldn't I did!!! That in itself is worthy of praising! We are to praise God in the good times and we are to praise God in the bad as well. I feel that God didn't take my babies away to be mean, He took them away to fulfill His will. One day something great will happen, one day we will have a baby and I will praise Him just as much then as I did today. I realized that when I finally accepted this I began to have joy in my life!
I also realized today that I want a baby more than anything in this world, I would give my life to have a child of my own. Ive spent the last 3 years of my life trying and trying to have a baby. My every thought, my every prayer was spent on asking and trying for a baby. God showed me today that that same desire I have for my baby, He has for us. Only his desire for my attention and my love is sooooo much more. I just cried at the thought of this, He loves and cares for me. My God didn't put me in this situation for pain and suffering, no He put me in this situation for a reason. One day ill know why and I'm pretty sure it will be even better than I can imagine!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging words. We are so lucky to have so many people who care about us. I praise Jesus everyday for my sweet Charlie, he has taken such good care of me. Im truely blessed to have him in my life!!!



*****Also we want to say a BIG congrats to our good friends Tadd and Joanna on the birth of their new baby Grady Smith Brewer!!! He is such a cutie!!!******

From my point of view..... Mom

Many people are wondering...what's next????? The answer...we wait.
Throughout this entire process, and honestly for the first time in my life, I can say, I have been 100% in the will of God. As a family, we prayed and prayed and prayed for God's will and we all knew, without a shadow of a doubt, we were obediently following the plan God had laid out for us to follow. Everywhere we looked, we would see God. Everything we did, we would see God. There was never a time we doubted that we were being obedient.

When I woke up, Friday Feb 3, I was soooo sick!!! The best sick I had ever been in my life. I knew then, God had blessed me with my grand baby!! Sometime during the day, Donnie and I decided we would confirm what we already knew and take a pregnancy test. When I came home from work that afternoon, I took the test. I left the bathroom to go into the kitchen and before I'd had time to fix myself a glass of water, Donnie said, "I think it's time". I laughed and called back to him, "No, Donnie, we wait three minutes". He giggled (yes, I said giggled) and said, "No, I think it's time." I knew by his voice he had already been in the bathroom and checked the test and yes, it was postiive!!! My Donnie was like a little school girl...he couldn't contain his excitement!! It was precious!!! Then he sat down and with tears streaming down his face and said the sweetest words... "Robyn, I'm so humbled!! I don't know why, but God has trusted us to to bring our grandchild into this world...what an honor that God chose us." It was at that very moment, I became attached to that little child growing inside me...my grand baby...my daughter and son-in-law's baby.

Later that same night, we also learned that Lynsey was pregnant. I'll be honest, I was a little shocked, but joy and excitement filled my heart!! I'll never forget that night, that moment changed me forever. I share this, not for people to be sad for us, but because I want you to know the joy we experienced for a few days. Joy we were able to experience because God Blessed us. And let me also add...those days were some of the best days of our entire lives!!!!!

Unfortunatly, our excitement was short lived... a few days later, God answered our prayer....He closed the door...No, He slammed the door! And, yes, it took us by surprise. Were we shocked? Yes. Were we sad? Yes. Were we disappointed? Yes. Were we heartbroken? Yes. Are we still all those things? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Have we stopped loving God because of this? NO!!! The best part of all this is also the hardest part....we asked for God's will...We asked if this wasn't God's will that He would close the door... and as hard as it is to accept, God answered our prayer...He closed the door... GOD DID WHAT HE KNEW WOULD BE BEST FOR OUR LIVES!! Sometimes that hurts. But, because God loves us, He closed the door on this journey. Why? He has something much, much better in store for our lives!!!

Since, Lynsey and I lost the pregnancies our families have had difficult days. We are grieving our loss and it's hard. During this process, we have experienced the evil of Satan. He is using our weak moments to weezle his way into our lives trying to break us down. Satan is powerful...he knows our weaknesses and he has attacked those weaknesses everyday. There have been times when I've cried out to Donnie and some of my friends asking, "why is God doing this?" I am so blessed to have Godly people surrounding me everyday who remind me, "Robyn, that's not God. Those bad things are Satan!!" Satan doesn't want our family to give God the glory for anything. He doesn't want us to say that God knows best. He doesn't want God to be glorified....PERIOD. We have to stop everyday and say..."Satan..you will NOT be victorous over us!!" And you know what, sometimes we have to say that more than one time a day because satan doesn't give up!

God has a plan for Lynsey and Charlie!! I believed that when we started this process. I believed that with every shot we took. I believed it with every pill we swallowed , I believed it when Dr. Gentry retrieved the eggs, I believed it when we did the transfer, I believed it when we got pregnant, and I BELIEVE IT TODAY!!! GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!! GOD STILL HAS A PLAN!! AND GOD IS AN ALL LOVING, ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, ALL EVERYTHING GOD!!! So, what's next? We wait...we grieve...we listen...we get better...we hear...and we obey!!! When will we know? Only God knows that answer, but I know my God has a plan...a plan to prosper us and NOT harm us...a plan to give us hope and a future. I believe that with all my heart!! We may be sad but that sadness doesn't mean we have lost faith in God. Our sadness and hurt is developing us into stronger, more loving, more compasanate people. We don't know why, but for some crazy reason, God has chosen our little family to go through this and now...we wait patiently upon the Lord!!!! PUSH!!!!
Somebody's Praying

Somebody's Praying, I can feel it
Somebody's praying for me
Mighty hands are guiding me
To protect what I can't see
Lord I believe, Lord I believe
That Somebody's prayin, for me.

Angels are watchin', I can feel it
Angels are watchin' over me
There's many miles ahead 'til I get home
Still I'm safely kept before your thrown
'Cause Lord I believe, Lord I believe
Your angels are watchin' over me.

Well, I've walked through barren wilderness
When my pillow was a stone
And I've been through the darkest caverns
Where no light had ever shown.
Still I went on 'cause there was someone
who was down on theri knees
And Lord, I thank you for those people
Prayin' all this time for me.

Somebody's prayin', I can feel it
Somebody's prayin for me
Mighty hands are guiding me
To protect me from what I can't see
Lord I believe, Lord I believe
Somebody's prayin' for me...

Thanks to everyone praying for healing!!!

In the end its all ok, if its not ok then its not the end

Well it's been such a roller coaster of emotions this week!
I'll start with Friday February 3rd that morning on my way to work I got a call from mom. She sounded a little upset but she said " Lynsey, I don't need to take a pregnancy test." and I said ok why. She replied " because I'm so so sick" I just laughed, she had been sick all morning. When I hung up the phone I turned Klove back up and David Crowder was singing our song. I just cried and cried. God Wink!
That afternoon when I was leaving work I checked my phone and saw mom had sent me a picture message. It was a picture of a positive pregnancy test. I couldn't believe it. I called her and I could hear anything she was saying because dad was yelling in the background like a little school girl! She said she knew the whole time she just wanted to prove it. So she said ok Its your turn. I had to go try on bridesmaid dresses so it would be a while. After I was done I rushed home to take a test. My home pregnancy test was the two line one. So when I peed I saw a faint line. Charlie couldn't see it, so he says. So we went to Charlie's parents to tell them. I should them moms picture and then showed them my test and sure enough they saw the line too.
Mom and dad were on there way to my house to get more medicine so I told her to bring her digital test so we could be sure. When they got to the house I went ahead and took the digital test ( because dad was going to have a heart attack if I didn't) we made Charlie go look. He came out of the bathroom really quite when he look Ed up from the test he said " looks like we're having two babies" we all screamed and cried! We were all in shock! I've never ever seen Charlie so happy in all my life! Our dreams were coming true! We sent out the picture of both test to some family. It was so hard not to tell everyone. I even talked to Dr. Gentry and he said it was ok to be excited, we were pregnant! We've never been pregnant before. This was the farthest we've ever been! You can't even imagine the excitement!!!!!
The next few days were rough for me and mom, she had morning sickness and I had night sickness. As bad as it was it was totally worth it!
Tuesday morning I woke up about 4 so sick! Charlie found me in the bathroom and said " we paid a lot of money for you to be like this" ha ha. After 3 hours and LOTS of sickness later I began to wonder if it was a bug. I decided to call Dr. Gentry's office to see what I needed to do. Bea called back and said its probably not a bug but something called hyperemesis. It is extreme sickness that's caused my multiples. She wanted me to get to Evansville for bloodwork ASAP! Since we were going ahead with the pregnancy test she said mom could have hers done too. I instantly began to panic, multiples!!!! Oh no!
Dad drive mom and I to get the bloodwork, we knew the test would be positive we were just nervous about the possibility on multiples. About an hour and a half after the bloodwork Bea called. She said all my labs were fine so it may just have been a bug. She also said our tests came back positive but our levels were low. We instantly panicked! She told us not to worry that it was still good. We were in shock, here we were just a few minutes earlier trying to decide what to do with all these babies and now our two babies could possibly be in danger.
We had to go back Thursday to see if our numbers doubled. If they double everything was going good if not we were in danger of losing them. Wednesday was a rough day of wonder and worry and lots of Internet looking. Wasn't a good idea!
By Thursday I was a nervous wreck, we didn't get the call until 3 hours after the bloodwork. Bea said mine and mom's level went down. My heart sank! I just couldn't believe it!
She told us that if we had a positive test on Friday that our hcg was probably high then and we probably began losing them over the weekend.

I've asked Charlie before if he thought it was harder to not get pregnant or get pregnant and lose it. We found our answer yesterday. I'm not sure if I've ever known such pain. I feel like it was a joke to be so excited one minute and do heartbroken the next. I feel like there is someone somewhere laughing and pointing and saying " you actually thought it would work" ha ha ha!

We appreciate all the prayers text and kind words. We are very very lucky to have so many people who love us and care for us. Please continue to pray for healing and peace as we face these next few days.
God allowed us to go through this journey for a reason. He allowed me to do this blog for His purpose. Even though at this very moment I can't understand why I know that His plan is way better than ours. He knows my desire for a baby and hopefully one day we will know the joy of being parents. If its even close to what we felt for those few days I can't wait! God is still a good God and we will still trust and serve Him!

We go to see Dr. Gentry next week to see what to do next. Bea mentioned that we may have an embryo problem. If so I don't know if it will ever work. Regardless of what he wants to do mom and I both need to let our bodies heal. Pray for us in these next few days as our bodies will go through a lot. Lots of pain and lots of heartache.

I have a quote around my house from psalms that says "weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning". One morning my joy will come, one morning.

The two week wait!

It all comes down to this....wow what a journey! On Wednesday mom and I along with our small fan club :) went to put in our beautiful eggs. Once we got there Dr.Gentry told us that out of our 7 fertilized eggs 6 of them were grade "a" (they grade the eggs, a, b, c's obviously "a" being the best) He also told us that they all looked very good. In his words "somebody should get pregnant with these eggs". The last IVF we did, this was one of our bigger problems and one of the reasons with why it didn't work.So we were very very happy to hear this news. So he did want to put 2 in mom and 2 in me. That leaves us with 2 left over to freeze. (we wont know if they froze for another few days) 
Mom got to go first, dad and I got to stay in the room to see the transfer. We were supposed to be there with a moderate to full bladder but mom didn't start drinking her water till we got there so her bladder wasn't quite moderate yet, this and because of some scar tissue from her c section with me caused about a 3 to 4 minute panic. He had quite a bit of trouble getting through her cervix. He ended up getting some extra tools and finally after what I know was a very painful process, 2 wonderful eggs were placed in her uterus. I remember sitting there watching my sweet mom go through so much pain for me. My heart broke into, I just prayed and prayed that God would intervene and help it not be so painful. Afterwords when it was just dad and I we both looked at each other and he said " I thought God was closing the door." and I did too. Still not 100% sure as to why that happen I know that God was there and Dr. Gentry was very please with the placement of the eggs. I got to video tape the transfer and we were also given pictures. Here is the 2 eggs that were placed in mom. The little whit line beside the "x" is where they were placed.

After mom was finished and resting they took me back, thankful my transfer was a lot easier. Mine took about 3 minutes total. He was also very pleased with the egg placement. Charlie got to video tape mine as well and we also got a picture of our two sweet babies. Mine look likes two white dots beside the "x"



After my transfer we were both in recovery for 30 minutes, then we were able to leave. Once we were at home we were to be on bed rest for the next two days. It was raining when it was time to leave so the boys went a got the cars for us. When dad came in to get us he said "Lynsey you'll never guess what song is playing on the radio right now." Yep, it was "Oh how he loves" by the David Crowder band. GOD WINK!!!!

 Charlie and dad and Melissa took such good care of us. We were feed very very well. The boys did get a little irritated when they got the kitchen all cleaned up and then we asked for more food. However, they say they were happy to do it!

Thursday we went to moms house and my sweet Gram came and took good care of us. We have been showered with food, cards, texts, and calls. We have been so taken care of these past few days. Our friends and families have taken such good care of us. Melissa stayed with us Friday and her and Sarah cooked us a great supper. We haven't needed anything. It is so nice to have so many people who love us so much!

I remember waking up Wednesday morning and looking on facebook, and it was blown up with prayers and kind words for mom and I. I just sat down and cried. We are so grateful for the support, the best thing that you can do for someone who is going through this, is support them. We also had a group of amazing women that did a prayer circle for us at the beauty shop. I cant even begin to tell you how much that means to us. To go into such an event with so much prayer, its like flying. You feel like you can touch the sky! We will forever and ever be grateful for each and every one of you who have supported us. 

So now we are in the two week wait. We have to wait to whole long long weeks to find out what we both already know :) But still we do have to make it newsworthy with a blood test. We ask that you continue to pray for the 4 embryos that are attaching and growing inside us. I pray that they will one day get to read this blog and see just how loved they really were, before they were ever created!!!!!

God bless!!!

Dear mom,

Dear Mom,

Tomorrow is our big day. Ive had all day to ponder and think about what is about to happen. Ive tried to think all day what I could get for you to say "thank you" but when I really think about it, what do you give the women who is about to sacrifice once again for me to have happiness. I wish I could buy you the world in return for what your going to do for me, but with a husband like Charlie we both know that wont happen, too expensive. :) All I could come up with was a letter to at the very least try and express my gratitude for what you are doing for us. So I'm going to try my best to get through this letter with as dry of eyes as possible.

Twenty-six years ago I'm sure the sight of a positive pregnancy test wasn't exactly what you would consider a miracle in the making. I can only imagine what you and dad were feeling and thinking. I can only imagine what was going through you head. As I think about what you went through, I first want to say thank you for choosing me. Even though it isn't in you to think that you wouldn't keep me, you still did. That would be the first of MANY sacrifices you've made for me. I'm sure it wasn't easy when people found out that two un wed teens are having a baby. I cant imagine the things that were said to you and the things that hurt your feelings. I thank you for choosing to marry my dad, and to make a life for me. I know that twenty-six years ago you could never imagine that the miracle inside you was only the beginning of what was to come.

Thank you mom for continuing your education so that you could provide a life for me. Thank you for all the times you stayed up late, went to study groups and took weekend classes so that you could show me what hard work and dedication is all about. Thank you mom for pushing and pushing yourself  to teach me that hard work does pay off. Thank you for working extra hours so we could have extra money for my "oreos" Thank you for always, always, putting me first above anything else you wanted. I have no idea what that was like for you and dad. You both always had time for me and always showered me with your love!

Thank you mom for staying with my dad through think and thin. Thank you for showing me what a loving christian wife is about. Thank you for teaching me what married life is supposed to be. Thank you mom for taking me to church every Sunday and every Wednesday. Thank you for helping lead me to the Lord. Thank you mom for pushing me every night to do my homework, and brush my teeth, and pick up my clothes. Thank you mom for listening to me when I had fights at school with my friends, or when a stupid boy broke my heart. Never, never where you not there with your shoulder out ready for me to cry on. Thank you for going to EVERY ball game I cheered, EVERY cheer competition I competed in and cheering for me the whole time!

Now even though this letter is to you, I still do need to stop because we both know we wouldn't be here if it weren't for dad. Thank you to my wonderful dad who gave up so much for both of us, he is the reason we are both still standing. God blessed me with two wonderful parents who love each other and has shown me what a godly relationship should be.

Tomorrow at 1230, I will once again add to this list of "thank yous" Tomorrow, God willing two of mine and Charlie's wonderful eggs will be implanted into you. You will hopefully carry one (or more) of your grandchildren. WOW how many people can say that!!! As if you could possibly do more for me, you go and help me out again. Thank you mom for going above and beyond your call of duty of motherhood. Thank you for putting your body through so much, thank you for taking each pill, and letting dad "shoot you up" :) Charlie and I will forever be grateful for what you have done.

No matter what happens, if this works or not I want you to know that I can never ever repay you for what you have done. I hope and pray that in the next few weeks there will be heartbeats all around. I cannot wait to tell your grandchildren what you did for them. You are my hero and I will eternally grateful for what you have done!!!

all my love,

Lynsey



Hold on tight, cause here we go....

Well this is it, the time has come. This long awaited journey is beginning and we cant wait to see how it goes. Friday morning bright and early Charlie, mom, dad, Cathy and I made our way to Evansville to retrieve some eggs. When we got their Charlie and I were taken back to the room where the eggs would be removed. He was able to be in the room with me, they gave me fentanyl and versed which didn't knock me out but it did relax me. I was able to watch on the screen when he went in and took out each egg. It was something that I don't think I will ever forget. From the right side they removed 13 eggs, wow! When he moved to the left side they told Charlie he could video if he wanted, which he did. However when he went to the left side there was a huge blood vessel that was in the way of the 3 eggs. He tried every direction to get them but he said if he went in and got them I would be in the hospital and it just wasn't worth it. So we ended up with 13 eggs, which is still great! I recovered for about 2 hours and we were sent on our way. They told me to stay up on my pain meds because those 3 eggs they couldn't get would drop and it would be painful!

On Saturday around 1130 we finally got the call. Of the 13 eggs we have 7 fertilized eggs. So from Friday until Wednesday when we go to implant they will let them grow in the pea tree dish. So right now we have to pray that these 7 are growing and maturing so they will be ready to implant. On Wednesday he will tell us just how good each egg is and how many he wants to implant in each of us. We are excited and ready to see how this goes.

Its now that I start to get nervous and anxious. But I have to stop and remember God has brought us this far He wont leave us now. We are so excited to know that on Wednesday mom and I both will be soooo close to being pregnant. It seems so surreal, we've waited so long for this and here it is. In just a few short weeks we will know if all this hard work and prayers paid off.

Once again I want to say a big thank you to all of the prayers, text, calls and kind words. We are so extremely blessed with amazing people who are always thinking of us. We've received so many precious gifts that we will hold dear to our hearts. We have 2 amazing people Brittany and Ashlee who are selling decals for us. I fill like every time I turn around someone else is helping us out or giving us an encouraging word. I thank God for sending these people in our lives. Thank you doesn't even seem appropriate. But we are truly grateful for all of you!!!

Please continue to pray for our sweet little 7, as they grow and mature into beautiful eggs. Please remember us on Wednesday around 1230 as both mom and I will be implanted and let the next journey begin........... 

The time is.....NOW!

This week has been super crazy, doctor appointments, ultrasound, and blood work. Today mom and I both had to go to get blood work and mom had to have a ultrasound too. Everything looks great with mom, they said they wanted her cervix to be at least 7 and today it measured 8.9! Perfect!( We learned today that the thicker the cervix the better the egg will take) so we are very pleased with what we saw today!

This week my eggs have been growing perfectly, on Monday we had 4 of them measuring at 19 cm and 5 measuring at 18cm.Which is great, because they want the eggs to be at least 20 cm before they take them.Yesterday I had Charlie take a picture of my poor belly, I'm so bloated. On Tuesday my ovaries were so enlarged they were smashing my uterus.
 So after today's appointment I'm pleased to announce that we will be doing our retrieval on Friday morning. We are so excited that we will be getting this process started a day early. We all know that it is because of all the prayers that this is going so smoothly.

Please keep the prayers coming the retrieval will be at 8:00 Friday morning and our transfer will be on Wednesday. I'm excited, nervous and anxious all at the same time. God has had his hand in all of this and I couldn't be happier knowing that we are doing his will. God is so good and we are so excited to see what He is going to do with us.