On our sixth month visit the doctor was concerned that the baby's head and stomach were not growing right to proportion and that there could be something wrong with his brain. They assumed the worst and put me on half days at work and no physical activity. However, we had to move at the end of my seventh month into an apartment, and although I didn't touch a single box, the stress was apparently too much for the baby.
Like a Dream
My parents came up to help with the move, and as they were leaving, my water broke. I was only thirty six weeks along. After being in labor for thirty six hours, and the baby continually distressing, we had to have an emergency Cesarean. They brought my baby to me and I could not believe God had blessed us with a child, who we named Kirk. It all seemed like a dream, with my husband beside me crying and the buzz of the staff. I was never more proud. Reality hit the next day. Something was wrong. Kirk had a large hematoma and his skull had been fractured in the delivery. We were devastated. Our mothers stayed in the room with Kirk while we paced the floors of the hospital. They began doing x-rays and I insisted they do them in my room, since Kirk was not going anywhere.
People had started calling to congratulate us, and we told them what was going on and to please pray for Kirk's head to heal. Word spread quickly and people that we didn't even know were calling to let us know that they were praying for him. They prayed over the phone, they came in the room, they laid hands on him, and we started to feel a sense of peace that God truly was in control and we had nothing to fear.
Just Another Miracle
The next morning, less than twenty four hours later, our prayers were answered. Although the hematoma was the largest they had ever seen, they felt it would eventually go down, and when he turned five, they could surgically remove the cyst that would be left. The skull fracture, however, was gone - completely healed. Just another miracle God had allowed us, but not His last.
We went home from the hospital after almost a week and within days I spiked a fever of 104 and was in unbearable pain. We went to the doctor and he immediately said we were going to the hospital for aggressive antibiotics and fluids. I had developed a staph infection from the long labor. I declined to go to the hospital, but promised to come back every day for fluids and whatever else he wanted, but I was not leaving my baby. I took so much medication, I slept through the first two weeks of my son's life, but eventually I felt better and could take care of Kirk myself.
All Kirk's doctor visits were perfect and within a month of his birth, God gave us another miracle. The dreaded cyst that was going to require surgical removal, was now gone. Kirk is six years old now, healthy, and happy.
After Kirk's birth, I miscarried again with twins, and then again, after complications from a head injury. We were done!
"Okay, God. We're happy with Kirk, and were forgetting it. If one child is all you want us to have, that's fine. Thank you for Kirk. We quit."
Later we were sponsoring two beautiful girls from Russia, Anna and Katja, who we fell in love with the minute they stepped off the plane. I said I wouldn't get attached, and because they were young teens, I would not even be interested in long term sponsorship. But I was wrong, and although we only had them for one short week, we knew they belonged with us and they wanted to stay. We tried to adopt them both but despite our best efforts the adoptions would not happen and we would lose touch with the girls.
"Why God? Where are you? Why would you not allow us to take in these amazing girls and love them? No one else wants them and we do."
And Another Miracle
Maybe our answer came in late June 2002. I was so sick that morning and I just knew. I was pregnant. Again!
"Why God? Why would you have us go through another miscarriage?"
We went to the doctor and we were three weeks along, just like the others. We can worry for a long time. I just waited for the miscarriage to happen. I was sick of course - hyperemia, they called it. I was prescribed a medication that I refused to take because there was no guarantee it would not affect the baby. I had to stop taking the crazy pills, so life was fun at the Willson House. I think there were times my husband probably thought of taking the pills for himself.
