Our Journey

Oh my God! I can't believe this is happening to us. In April 2007 we decided we wanted to start a family. This idea was mostly exciting to us but we were nervous at the same time. We went back and forth with this idea until we got serious in September. We thought getting pregnant would be very easy because we are young. However it took us longer than we thought. When it did not happen for several months, we got frustrated and scared. Research says, one in five couples suffer from infertility. Were we going to be the one in five? Of course not. We had so much faith in God but there were many times that we got discouraged. It was difficult to answer and sometimes heartbreaking when people would always ask '' When are you going to have kids". We would always find an answer but the fact was, we were dying to say something like ''in 9 months". Well, my doctor kept saying it will happen when it happens so relax. It was easy for her to say.

I really started getting nervous when my doctor said if we tried for a year without success we would have to look into what the problem is and perhaps start fertility treatments. "What? Are you kidding me? No, fertility treatment is for 40-year olds, I'm not that desperate yet" I would tell myself. Well our year mark was coming up quick. We gave up trying because it was frustrating. We took a couple of vacations to Ghana and Canada in May 2008 and August 2008. When we went to Ghana in May 2008, James stayed to volunteer for the West African AIDS foundation while I returned at the end of May. James was gone till July 21st and came back to Baltimore right in time for our wedding anniversary and my birthday. We went to Toronto and Montreal for our anniversary and had a great time. It was so fun. But unfortunately we had to return to Baltimore in early August.

On Wednesday, Semptember 3rd, I woke up with an excrutiating abdominal cramping. I never knew how cramps felt like so to me this was severe and unbearable. I sucked it up and went back to sleep and then to work at my oncology unit the following morning. On thursday, Semptember 4th, I continued to have excrutiating abdominal cramping that kept me awake all night. I woke up wailing and crying. I tried to wake James up but he was still sleeping. I took some ibuprofen and decided to call my OB/GYN in the morning. I knew she would ask me " are you pregnant?". I knew that was not possible but I decided to do a home test anyway. I stared at the test strip. The first line appeared, then there was a second line. Oh My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe my eyes. The test was positive. I was so overjoyed that I forgot I was having pains. I was so excited and crying uncontrollably. My heart was filled with joy.

I told James the next morning and his heart was filled with joy too. We just hugged and kissed. We were so grateful to God for his grace, mercy, and blessing. I called my OB/GYN about the pain and she told me to go to the emergency room if it was severe. I kept telling myself the pain was not bad until around 2:30pm. I finally went to the ER but the pain was gone by the time I got there. Isn't that how it always works? In the ER they told me they needed to rule out ectopic pregnancy ( that is when the baby is implanted in the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus). That scared me. I could not rejoice about our baby anymore, I was just worried. They did some urine and blood test and an ultrasound. The ultrasound did not show any signs of a baby in the uterus. This worried me more. My HCG level was 300 and they expected it to double in 48 hours if it was a normal pregnancy. I was asked to come back to the ER on saturday. That was the longest 2days ever. I was so nervous at this point. At work on friday, I told Karla about this. Karla was the first person to know about the baby. It was cold and rainy on saturday. James and I went to the ER. My HCG level had more than doubled and we were happy with this. This meant the baby was in a condusive environment and growing well. Thanks be to God. The first picture with Audrey in yellow was when we went to Ghana this May. We were at Kakum National park with Audrey's childhood friend Maame Ama.