Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Once Upon a Time...Celebrating Juliana Sophia

Once Upon a Time...

A man and woman fell in love. They got married and heard God asking them to be open right away to having babies. They had been married 3 months when the most amazing thing occurred...a positive pregnancy test! Instant love poured out of their hearts to this little person growing inside, but then, something didn't feel right. The Momma knew something was wrong. She took another test. Negative. The baby was gone. The hurt. The loss. The helplessness.

The man and woman were scared to try again. Scared that this was going to be a pattern in their lives but they prayed and trusted the Lord. 3 months passed and still nothing.

Then, one snowy evening the man had to rescue the woman at her stranded car at the bottom of their neighborhood. A blizzard was on it's way and the little Toyota Corolla was NOT making it up a classic Pittsburgh hill. So down he came with safety goggles to protect their eyes against the harsh wind, boots for her since dress shoes and tights wouldn't do for their 1/2 mile trek home and an extra coat.

The next day they spent hours digging themselves out of the house. 24" of snow had fallen over night and the world was blanketed in white. The woman noticed that all this digging was making her extremely tired. More tired than she ought to be considering she was in good shape and had rested 9 long hours the night before. She laid down for a nap. She didn't know this at the time, but it would be the first of many mid-day naps she would take over the next 8 months!

After shoveling, walking, digging and more shoveling, they were able to rest that Saturday evening. The woman just couldn't shake that tired feeling and was off to bed early that evening.

Since they had cleared out the cars and all the roads were plowed as well, they made it to 10:30 Mass on Sunday morning and ran into his aunt and uncle who invited them to brunch. They ran to the store to pick up a few items and the woman suggested they pick up a pregnancy test, as she was a day or two late and just "had a feeling"

"What if it's negative?" asked the man
"What if it's not? " the woman said
"Are you going to be all sad and let it ruin your evening (they were having folks over for the Superbowl)?"
"No"...(in her head, yes!!) she said
"Okay, fine, get it..."

They went and enjoyed a lovely brunch but all she could think about was getting home and peeing on the stick!

Finally, they got home and he said, "You ready to pee on the stick?"

"YES!!!!"

Into the bathroom she went.
Hail Mary, Full of Grace... She needed the Blessed Mother on her side. Holding her during these delicate moments.

Out she came and three minutes felt like an eternity!

"Shall I go check?" he asked?
Nodding...nervous and scared beyond words. Feeling so hopeful but not wanting to be disappointed, she let him check.

"Well...longest pause possible...IT'S POSITIVE!!!!!!! +++++++++++++

The tears of joy. The embrace of parents, brought together by God, blessed with a baby, a new life, a new vocation.

They feared this child's life would slip through their fingers like their first, so for weeks they kept this great gift to themselves. And to each other and to their baby, they whispered "be sticky..."
Stick to Mommy. Become one with her and let her take care of you. They called her this until week 20 when they discovered they had a beautiful baby girl on the way.

From then on, she was Juliana Sophia.

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We've loved you from Day 1 and prayed for you since before your existence.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful love story....Happy birthday Juliana!

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  2. What a beautiful story!! Thank you for sharing this Colleen.

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  3. Adorable!! :) I love this.

    Happy Birthday, big girl! :)

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  4. Hi Colleen! I was wondering if you would be able to answer my question I have about your blog! My name is Heather and if you could please email me at Lifesabanquet1(at)gmail(dot)com I would greatly appreciate it :-)

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