Rewind time 10.5 years. My first child, Hannah, was 6 weeks old. I got a call a few days after my check up from a nurse at my OBGYN'S office. She said that my doctor wanted to see me right away and she would not say why. I made the appointment, but did not realize how much that visit would impact the rest of our lives.
When my husband and I met with the doctor, she informed us that the our nurse at the hospital had not administered my RhoGAM shot and that my bloodwork showed a low level of antibodies in my blood. These antibodies had the potential to complicate future pregnancies, or even result in miscarriages. Our doctor referred us to a specialist who did a series of tests. Than he had us schedule a follow up visit in six months when they would run the same tests and compare the results. After much prayer, our second round of test seemed to show no more antibodies. The doctor told us that the antibodies that showed up in the first round of test were more than likely left over vaccine from the shot I received at seven months gestation. We were relieved and put the whole thing behind us.
Fast forward to three and a half years later. I had just given birth to our second child, Isaac. He was struggling to eat, and was very fussy. Our nurse arrived in our room on the morning of day two with a "Bili-bed" and informed us that both the baby and I had antibody levels off the chart and that Isaac was severely anemic and jaundice. He would have to stay under phototherapy lights around the clock, in order to get his numbers down low enough to come home. My heart sank. Isaac's body weight had dropped by 10% in the first 24 hrs and now we were faced with having to transfer him to the children's hospital downtown if his redblood cells did not rebound fast.
We immediately called our church family and had them begin to pray. Two days later we were able to get his levels to stabilize enough to bring him home, but that only lasted 12 hrs. His numbers spiked and we were sent downtown to the children's hospital. That began a three year journey of doctors, specialists, endless medications and three procedures that required sedation. By the time we finally were able to get Isaac to a state of full health, my dreams of another baby had pretty much disappeared. Specialists had warned us of the dangers future pregnancies could hold. They had spoken such fear into my heart that ultimately my husband and I put those dreams to rest, and decided to simply enjoy our Hannah and Isaac....
But God....
Is a God of miraculous answers to prayer!
After Isaac's third birthday, I began to have vivid dreams of another baby. Dreams of being pregnant, feeling the baby move and of course the delivery room. I kept these dreams to myself and did my best to ignore them. Over the course of two years these dreams intensified until I couldn't ignore them any longer. Finally, in the summer of 2014 I began to recognize and vocalize my desires for another baby to my husband. At first I think he thought I was crazy, but to my surprise, he eventually agreed to leave it up to God. We were pregnant within the month, and a new journey began; a scary journey of faith, trust and prayer. During my pregnancy, we once again relied on a group of prayer warriors who held our arms up when we could not hold them up ourselves. A group of people who encouraged us through every step of the journey. We experienced countless doctor visits, diagnostic ultra-sounds and endless bloodwork. But through the grace of God, our baby boy, who the doctors were not even sure would make it through the first trimester, was born at 35 weeks 5 days. Luca spent 23 days in the NICU and underwent 4 blood transfusions and endless blooddraws. Most of those first 3 weeks were spent under phototherapy lights, but through it all, he remained a happy boy. Although he has struggled with the complications from severe reflux, he has been able to go from the 7th percentile for his weight to the 50th percentile, and he is meeting and exceeding all of his developmental milestones!
Our journey through the past 7 years has been a difficult experience, but our faith has been strengthened, and our family has learned to trust the power of prayer. God gave me a verse during this time that summarizes our story perfectly. Ezra 8:23, "So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer."
-Amber Matyi
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