In last month’s column I wrote about trials in life that may last for years and never seem to end. This month I’m here to assure everyone that some excruciating and long trials in life do end in exactly the way you want them to and with much happiness. That just happened in our family!
My son Mark has always been solid as a rock, as my sister describes him. He was always well-behaved as a child, except for the time he got mad and stuck the steak knife in the wall of his bedroom . . . and the time he carved his name in his bed . . . and the time he hit his brother on the head with a hammer. OK, he was usually well-behaved.
He was never a complainer; he’s the one I describe as “monosyllabic.” Drawing conversation out of him is a struggle sometimes. I warned his wife Jill about that when they were engaged. She said, “Oh, he’s never like that with me.” She since has said, “Well, I guess moms know their kids.”
Like all my sons, he looked forward all his young life to going on a two-year mission for our church and headed off, excited and dedicated when he was 19. Five months later he was home, sick with what was diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome. He sat on the couch for months, gray, exhausted, and with a constant headache. But I never heard a word of complaint cross his lips about his disappointment at having his dream cut short.
When he finally felt better, he found a flexible traveling job he could handle and headed out, calling every night at 9 to let me know he was OK. Soon he headed back to college and found a pretty girl to love. He didn’t say much about her-his brothers filled me in-but I knew when he gave her a nickname, she was a keeper.
They graduated, they worked, they wanted a family, they waited. He came back close and went to Duke for three wonderful years to get an MBA. They wanted a family. They waited. They began to worry. We began to pray.
The Struggle Begins
In a family our size, when the babies start coming, they start coming fast. It seemed everyone was having babies. Jill made homemade gifts for everyone. The doctor’s visits and treatments started. Our family fasted and prayed for them. I begged Jill not to go to baby showers, to stop making baby blankets, to guard her heart.
I was visiting them close to her birthday one year and held her in my arms when she cried and cried and wondered if she would ever be blessed to be a mother. Knowing something of the grief of unfulfilled dreams since my oldest daughter is severely handicapped, I tried to comfort her. I prayed her trial would end. I knew that not everyone in life who has the desire is blessed to be a mother and I know the promises to those who aren’t, but I prayed that they weren’t a couple who had to accept that.
They got a good job in Arkansas and moved and took a break from treatments, then started again. The break had almost been a relief. Then we fasted and prayed some more.
Success!
We knew when each step of the procedures happened and waited for each test. Every time Mark or Jill’s name popped up on my phone for a while I knew it would be tears of joy or sadness. But it was always joy. They were pregnant! Four tests said so. Then a doctor. Then a sonogram.
We found out they were to be doubly blessed-they were expecting twins! All along the way there were bumps to overcome and breaths to be held. It seemed they were pregnant forever!! We kept saying, “We’ll just be so glad when those babies are here!” Soon it was close, but the babies were tiny and we worried, and prayed, counting each ounce and each week.
Two trips to the hospital, two trips home. The babies were monitored and flunked some tests. Jill was admitted to the hospital for further tests. Her parents came from Utah thinking the births were imminent, but the tests improved. Her parents flew home. Well, almost. Her mother got to Memphis and Jill called to say she was having a c-section in hours. Her mother jumped off the plane and caught one back to Arkansas.
At Long Last!
But the babies we had waited for so long made it here. Beautiful little twins were born five weeks early the middle of May. Their names are Dean and Rachel. They were tiny, but without the major problems so many preemies can have. Dean was in the NICU for about two weeks and Rachel a week-and-a-half longer, but they are home now on a three-hour feeding schedule brutal to their parents.
Gone are Mark and Jill’s days of sleeping late on Saturday mornings and doing pretty much whatever they wanted to as a couple! But it touches our hearts to see them rocking their babies and, yes, even hearing both of the babies crying at the same time over Skype.
It took the babies five years to come, and how grateful we are that they are here safely. Many, many times trials end, Heavenly Father pours down blessings from heavens at just the right time and prayers are answered in wonderful ways.
Susan’s novel about prayers being answered in a wonderful way, “Miracle of the Christmas Star,” is available on www.mormonbooksandauthors.com or www.amazon.com
