Our Journey Part #1

September 15, 2006 was a day Rob and I will never forget. It was the day our lives changed forever. The months have flown since then but, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was an exciting day because we wanted so badly to start a family. The doctor had called 2 weeks prior to let us know that we were in fact, finally, expecting. I can recall the doctor telling me that my HCG level should range somewhere from 30-100; however, mine had skyrocketed to 371. Looking back on it, I didn’t think much about the fact my HCG level was abnormally high.

We had to wait 2 weeks after the initial announcement, before we would be able to visualize our future child on an ultrasound screen. This was the day we were going to see our baby for the first time. Our hope of having a family was finally going to become a reality.

We walked into the ultrasound room and I climbed up on the table. Rob sat in the chair next to me as we waited for the nurse to come in. I wondered if I would know what I was looking at on the monitor. I could never make out the actual baby when other proud parents flashed their sonogram pictures. Would I be able to see my own baby? No one described what an embryo would look like, but I expected it to be a little round blob. I remember looking at the screen feeling like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. It was confusing because I thought I saw something little and round like I had always pictured in my head, but there were several similar little blobs. I looked back and forth from the nurse to the screen hoping that I could read her mind. I was already thinking and feeling that something was wrong.

Could a mother’s intuition really kick in so quickly? Finally, I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I asked her if that speck was the baby. She reluctantly replied, “Yes.” So, naturally my next question was, “What are all those spots?” That was it. One tiny question with an answer 5-times more unbelievable than I had expected. Her answer to that question was the beginning of the scariest, toughest, happiest days of our lives. “It looks like there are at least four sacs, maybe five.” I vaguely remember stuttering and speaking half sentences, too stunned to put all the pieces together. Rob immediately dropped his head into his hands. When all of this started, the doctor indicated that we had a 25% chance of having twins and a 3% chance of having triplets. The percentages stopped there because there was no reason to go any higher – the chances of multiples after that were too miniscule and not worth mentioning. We went through the process hoping for just one baby. God had shown us his sense of humor, but we weren’t laughing just yet.