Miracle Baby

The Summary:

In short–we were told we couldn’t have kids. Dana had a special surgery that confirmed her tubes were completely blocked.

The Longer Version:

The situation:

In 2016 we found out that we couldn’t have kids naturally.

Dana had been experiencing severe pain in her abdomen each month, and so we went to see several specialists to learn what it could be–i.e. ovarian cysts, endometriosis, etc.  Finally they cut her open to see what was happening.

What they Found:

Her Fallopian tubes were blocked.  They tried many times and couldn’t get the die through her tubes, hence no egg was going to drop.  We were advised that we could either try an experimental procedure to unblock her tubes or we could do IVF.

What Happened:

Initially Dana cried out to God and asked to have kids naturally, to be completely healed.  She felt him say “Don’t worry, I will heal you.”  But we weren’t trying to have kids yet, so we put it on hold and tried not to think about it too much.

Then one day I was invited to a Men’s Prayer retreat.  I didn’t really want to go, my life was busy, things were crazy at work, but I promised a friend I’d be there… so I drove to the middle of nowhere Minnesota and met some random guys I didn’t know.  One of them wanted to start a non-profit, and I had experience setting them up, so I told him I’d sit down and walk him through it.  Initially we were going to just do a quick phone call, but I had a meeting that morning with the CEO at Target, and it got cancelled last minute (not something that happens every day).  So I told him I could meet in person for coffee.  I show up and he had a friend with him … a long haired Indian guy with a big smile.  As soon as I sat down, he said, do you have kids or are you trying to have them?

And his friend said, “yeah when you walked in, God kept giving me the words ‘kids’ too … ”

I was a bit taken aback, but I’m a pretty open person, so I humored them and explained that we weren’t currently trying to get pregnant but recently found out that we couldn’t have kids naturally and would need to explore IVF.  Something I would explore more next year when we started preparing to have kids.

But the Indian guy looked right at me and said “no buddy, I think God wants you to have kids right now.”  HAHA, what do you say to that?  I laughed out loud, and explained that if God wanted me to have kids now, that he is the only one who could make that happen.  5 months before, when we found out her tubes were blocked, we stopped using contraceptives because we didn’t need them, her tubes were blocked.  So if we got pregnant, then so be it.  It wasn’t possible otherwise.

The Prayer / Deliverance:

Dana was scheduled to fly to Italy for a 1 month study abroad on May 21st.  So the day before, May 20th, one of the guys comes over to pray for us.  And while I was putting his coat in the closet, he had a 30 second conversation with Dana, and I come into the room to find her in tears.  He told her things about herself in 30 seconds that even I didn’t know.  And she admitted to them when he asked if she struggled with X, Y, Z.   Even upstairs in our bedroom he asked what was going on in front of a certain window.  I had never really thought about it before, but once he said it, I realized it was the very window that she would pace back and forth in front of, EVERYNIGHT before bed.  For like 10 minutes.  It would drive me nuts that she couldn’t just get into bed and go to sleep.  It was her routine, and I knew she was cycling and struggling to let go of thoughts that had been tormenting her during the day, but I couldn’t do anything about it.  So he prayed for her.  Now, we’ve been prayed for many times, but I’ve never seen my wife literally hit the floor and convulse like electricity was pulsing through her body.  It was scary and yet exciting as I had hope that maybe she would be free from the things that had been tormenting her since she was a child.  He then prayed for me, and I felt my stomach churning like a washing machine … for years I struggled with lust, pornography, and honestly, I was super addicted to technology and staying up late.  To briefly skip back & forth, the next morning and for 6 months after, I was a completely different person.  I was giddy to wake up early, I didn’t feel tethered to my phone or computer, I had self control, and my thoughts were pure. To this day, I’m a different person and know that God set me and my wife free from many bad habits and things that we struggled with.  I honestly hadn’t considered them to be spiritual issues, I just thought it was a mental process or physical habit that I needed to retrain / discipline over time.

Then he had me lay my hands on my wife’s belly, anoint her with oil, and call forth my kids.

The Miracle:

Five weeks later I flew to Genoa Italy to meet my wife and start a 2 week extravaganza through the Swiss / Austrian / Italian Alps, totaling 9 countries in the fastest car they would let me rent. ?

Dana had just finished her finals and was mentally exhausted when I arrived, so picking her up and driving to Zermat Switzerland to breathe in views of the famous Matterhorn, it didn’t seem super unusual that she was physically drained.  And the altitude seemed to cause it’s typically nausea.

But it wasn’t until we finally got to Austria, and were ordering food atop a beautiful mountain, that I realized something else was up.  My wife is a registered dietitian, she is a personally trainer, and sometimes I think she is secretly a horse, persisting exclusively on salads.  So when I went to order for her the only salad on the menu, and she smacked my hand saying “I don’t want salad … I want Brats & Fries…” my first thought was, Holy Cow, you are pregnant. ?

After that we were driving from Heiligenblut Austria to Vienna and wanted to stop by Salzburg on the way.  We toured the Sound of Music, Mozart’s House, and stopped at the closest pharmacy, both for nausea meds and a pregnancy kit.  The name of the pharmacy was “APOTHEKE ZUM HEILIGEN GEIST” — translated “The Pharmacy of the Holy Spirit.”

One night later we finally tested it and found out we were “Schwanger” — shoot … we don’t speak German. LOL what does it mean?  Pregnant or Not Pregnant?  We raced to Google Translate.

How we know it was a Miracle:

Well you can see the redacted medical report.  Dana’s tubes were blocked, there was no getting an egg through there without a miracle or medical intervention.  Also, we had plenty of chances to get pregnant the prior 6 months.  So what are the odds we get pregnant, when it’s medically not possible, on the very day someone comes to pray for us?

9 months later we had the most beautiful baby, Josie Joy.  And she is such a joy.  Everyone who meets her can see something unique in her personality and smile, she’s full of life, a perfect gift.

The thing that I appreciate more than anything, is God’s mercy.  He cared enough to literally send someone to my house to pray for me, I didn’t even know this guy.  And he cared enough about our sweet child, that he wanted her conceived in freedom, and so he set each of us free from bondage’s we had been struggling with.  He knows what we need, when we need it, and he is faithful to answer prayer.