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Barren to Beautiful

Emily’s Secondary Infertility Testimony: Beauty from Ashes

Testimonies

15 Aug

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“Blessed is she who believes that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her.” -Luke 1:45

I have held onto this scripture tightly through every mountain and valley I have encountered. Being diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) at a young age has always struck my heart with fear that I would never be able to conceive.

After my husband and I got married, it only took about four months of trying and to my surprise I was able to get pregnant with my little girl. After she turned two, we decided that we wanted to start trying for our second child.

A year passed, and to our dismay we were unable to conceive. We decided to start seeing a fertility specialist in hopes that fertility treatments would give us the tools to make our miracle happen. After a year of tests and a surgery—we were still not getting anywhere.

My best friends had all since been pregnant and had their babies while we were still trying for our miracle to happen. Every announcement struck a mark on my heart. I was always happy for my friends, but the question always popped up, “Why hasn’t it happened for me?”

“Will we never have this second child we have prayed so hard for?”

These questions flooded my mind, until one night as I was scrolling through Facebook, I felt God speak to me. I came across a post that read, “God is saying what He said to Gideon, ‘You are a mighty warrior. You’re going to go further than you can
imagine. He’s saying what he said to Abraham. You’re going to have those children. You’re going to conceive. Your baby is on the way.”

As I read those words, I sat there in awe, as if God had come down and spoken them to me directly. I opened my Bible and started to read the story of Abraham, and while reading Abraham’s story I came across a devotional title “Faith Defined.”

It read, “Faith is believing God is with you even when things look bleak. It’s trusting Him when you don’t understand. It’s staying true to your beliefs and hanging on to the promises God has given in His word.”

I truly felt that God was listening.

For the first time in a long time I felt hopeful.

Fast forward to after that night, and my husband and I decided to pursue more extensive fertility treatments. We had three IUI treatments and every one of them failed.

In December, the week I was to have my fourth IUI treatment my biggest fear came to life. I lost my precious Daddy.

I was utterly heartbroken.

My Daddy was totally against my fertility treatments because he always said, “Emily, you must trust in God’s timing. Why put your body through these treatments? You have to trust in God and lean on His promises.”

I decided to cancel my fourth IUI treatment and take a break from fertility treatments because I knew I was not in a good emotional place dealing with the grief of losing him.

All of December was a blur.

Then we went into January and his birthday was January 9th. After we made it past his birthday, I decided it was time to change my life. I started running to cope with losing my Daddy.

Fast forward to March and I’m walking through Kohl’s looking to buy my five-year-old daughter some clothes. I walked past the baby section and I stopped dead in my tracks. I had such an overwhelming feeling from the Holy Spirit, and I locked eyes on this onesie, and I felt like God was telling me to buy it.

It wasn’t anything special. Just a little grey onesie hanging there that said, “Hello world.”

I walked away thinking, how silly, but as I tried to walk away, I felt so strongly to turn around. So, I did.

I bought the onesie and I decided I would do so as an act of faith. I decided buying that onesie was my way of saying, “God I know You will bless my family with a baby.”

So, April rolls around and at this point I’ve lost 40 pounds from running so much and I finally was starting to feel better mentally. Well here comes May, and on May 7th I get a call from my best friend telling me she’s pregnant.

After I got off the phone with her, I decided I’m going to take a test just for fun.

Guess what! It was positive! Fast forward to today and I’m now 16 weeks pregnant, not from any fertility treatments but from our Miracle Working God! To add even more to our miracle our baby is due January 17 th , and my doctor said more than likely we will have a c-section on January 9 th , my Daddy’s birthday.

God is here.

God is listening.

When you feel lost and cannot recognize yourself anymore, He still knows you and He still loves you. Keep your faith and He will reward you. I am proof that you can overcome the valleys, no matter how deep and long they are, and when you come out of the valleys God will bestow His blessings on you as you trust in His timing.

–Emily


Emily,

Thank you so much for sharing your testimony with us. Not only the grief of secondary infertility, but failed IUI’s and also, the loss of your father. It is amazing how God encouraged your heart through your father’s guidance, and showed up in such specific and intimate ways as you waiting on Him. And we rejoice with you about this miracle baby–due to be delivered on your father’s birthday! What an unmistakable gift from God! All of heaven will be rejoicing, along with us. We pray for a safe and healthy delivery and that the Lord will continue to encourage your heart along the way.

So much love, 

Rebekah Fox

Hey Beautiful! If you are currently struggling with infertility or secondary infertility, take heart that God sees and hears you, and you don’t have to walk this journey alone. I encourage you to subscribe to Barren to Beautiful by entering your email in the side bar, and also joining our closed, female-only Facebook group called, Barren to Beautiful Community. You will also find more encourging testimonies from real women in the “Testimonies” tab on the menu (hover mouse over “Testimonies” to see a list of names appear, and click through those), and there are even more articles in the “Trying to Conceive” tab. Also follow along on Facebook, and Instagram!

Praying Jesus brings your soul, from barren to beautiful.

 

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Hi, I’m Rebekah Fox.

I was once a barren woman. I had a barren womb, and a very barren soul. But God saw me in my barrenness--and He delivered me. Not only of a barren womb, but a barren soul, too. He opened my eyes to His beauty all around me. And every day, I need Him to do it again, in my heart, and in my spirit. To take me from Barren to Beautiful. Because I am weak, and broken, and sinful, but He--He is beautiful. If the Spirit has led you here, perhaps He wants to take your barrenness away--and birth something more beautiful than you ever imagined.

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Rebekah Fox

barrentobeautiful

I help women struggling with infertility to hope in Christ and allow Him to transform them from barren to beautiful—on the inside. 🌸

You’re invited 🌿 The past 3 summers I’ve i You’re invited 🌿

The past 3 summers I’ve invited my readers and friends to join me in a social media fast—

and it has been extremely restorative and fruitful. 

I want to invite you to join me for this, because I have experienced how freeing this has been. It begins on June 1, but you could join whenever you are reading this.:)

There are two choices:
The Sprint—fasting June 1-July 1 🏃🏻‍♀️ 

The Marathon—fasting June 1-September 1 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

The thing is, while I love following so many of your beautiful profiles (especially those of you who write for the glory of God) the truth is, you’re not the reason I’m going. It’s everything else.

I’ve found that my soul needs breaks from scrolling, from information, from watching, and from the many voices and opinions, and the idolatry that I’m so prone to adore and replicate.

Summer has become for me, a beautiful growing time. A quiet time, and a hidden time. 

If you choose to do one of these fasts—you will miss out. You will miss out on the happenings in the Christian world, you will miss out on being seen, you will miss out on the latest controversy, and the latest debate. 

But what you will gain, is so much more. 

For you will discover the forgotten beauty of the secret place.🌿

This summer, let your greatest ambition to be this: to know Him.

Nothing could be more freeing.
Nothing could be more fruitful.

Abide in him, and he will abide in you. He is the vine, and you are the branches and apart from him, we can do nothing. 

It’s a practical move this fast. It feels like pruning shears. But he only prunes, to make us more fruitful. 

This is my last night here for a while. 

I just felt prompted to invite you on this adventure, too.🌿
I won’t see you, but God will see you. And that’s all that really matters.

The link in my bio will explain everything about how the fast works.

If you do need to get in touch, you can email me at barrentobeautifulblog@gmail.com

Happy summer!🌿

Photo cred: My daughter when we visited the @wildandfree.co Forest Cabin 2 summers ago 🌿
Early on in my writing for #ttc women, I realized Early on in my writing for #ttc women, I realized my blog posts were not enough. These grieving women needed more than a blog post, or a Facebook comment. The women with empty wombs and longing hearts—needed something to hold in their hands. 
Hope. 
They needed the hope of Christ.

I’m delighted to say my dear friends @jennmhesse and @kelramsey at @waiting.in.hope Infertility Ministry have brought this hope to bear in their new book, “Waiting in Hope.”

This is the book I would have read from the bathroom floor on the nights I wept for a baby and God felt so silent and far away. This was the book I wished I had walking the lonely journey of infertility—too ashamed to ask for help, or even prayer. 

If you are a woman #ttc let this book be the gift you buy yourself for this Mother’s Day. 

Like two, gentle loving sisters who have walked this path, Jen and Kelly will lead you to wait in Hope—for the One who himself is Hope.

He sees you. He hears you. 
And you are not alone. 
Not anymore. 

There is a beautiful community of women, full of faith, compassion, and hope that long to come around you at @waiting.in.hope . 

But you can start here, by reading these 31 reflections for walking with God through infertility. You will be so glad you did. I promise.

**a few notes about these pictures.
I wanted this book with my tulips because I have to wait so long through the winter for them to grow. They are to me, the symbol of hope each spring.🌷

Second, to get the book to lay flat, in pic #5 I had to open my hand. And it reminded me, of how infertility was a season of unclenching my fists, and opening my hands in faith and surrender and worship. Open hands are also the only posture for receiving. And I pray this book opens yours.

May this book bless you and infuse you with real, living, tangible hope. Which is, the hope of Jesus. 🌿

Purchase at 
@waiting.in.hope and follow this amazing community of support! #ttc #infertility #infertilityawareness #hope
Ah, the words I most needed to hear this morning—once again—come from God’s Word through the prophet Isaiah! A woe to those who are tempted to trust in FLESH and not SPIRIT. (That’s me!) And a call to return to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. For he, too, is “wise and brings disaster.” 

I love what Alec Motyer writes in his commentary—which has counseled my heart so many mornings, but especially this one:
“The Lord never merely reacts to events as if sprung on him. He has prepared all beforehand is totally master of the situation.”

I encourage you to read Isaiah 31, and see Motyer’s notes here. See if your heart does tremble at the Holy One of Israel. See with what piercing accuracy the word of God penetrates your heart. 

And his final note—the blood of the lamb did not seem like enough for the Angel of death to pass over—but it was. His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Whatever God says, is true, and right. He alone is God—He is totally master of the situation. More than we could ever know or understand. He is worthy of all trust, all praise, all worship. I remind you, as I remind myself:
Do not rely on the flesh, for what only the Spirit of God can do. 💛
💛 💛
“I invited you, but you did not come.” It see “I invited you, but you did not come.”

It seems like a love letter, sometimes, this book, raw, aching words—though they come from God. What we see here is an invitation and a reproof. I imagine it almost like getting a beautiful wedding invitation, saying “this is what we could have had,” but then at the bottom are the painful words, “…but you were unwilling.” 

You refused to trust me, you refused to come after me, and you frantically panicked and went after other gods—who cannot save you. 

I don’t mean to add anything that’s not there, just pondering this one line out of the whole chapter 30 of Isaiah. I’ve wanted to write this verse at the end of cards and letters, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength…” and just end it there. Except I cannot edit out the very heart of God to fit my nice letter of comfort. The reproof is attached, “But you were unwilling.” These words pierce my heart. 

And I only share them to marvel at the heart of God. To allow His words to be wielded, to let them pierce our hearts. Nothing is sharper than the word of God. And it is good to ponder His word—even when it brings a sorrow, it is a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. It stings sometimes, but we must read the whole counsel of God. We must not gut it of the difficult parts. For in it, God’s heart is exposed to us—and it’s a heart so loving as we’ve never seen in anyone on earth. (Except, in the person of Jesus Christ!) 

Shortly after this, the Lord calls his people back, so tenderly it brings me to tears. What kind of love is this? What kind of God is this? Surely one who is worthy of our whole hearts, and whole lives, and ALL of our trust. 

Let us stay close to His Word, that we may know his heart. Nothing is more piercing or precise for today. He knew what He was doing when He breathed out these living words. We need them. They are life to us—for they lead to HIM. That we may know HIM as He is, and not merely as we think Him to be. 🧡 He is more wonderful than I ever thought, and still far greater than I know. I cannot probe the depths of His heart, and yet, through His word and Spirit, He probes the depths of mine.
Oh, listen to what God says in Isaiah 51:5-6! 
💛 

Lift up your eyes…

“…but my salvation will be forever, 
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”
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