This Mother’s Day I have so much to celebrate. Today I celebrate the two miracles growing with life inside me. Mother’s Day has been filled with so much grief and pain (and that doesn’t just go away) but this year it is also filled with great joy and expectation.
I celebrate my amazing mother and mother-in-love today and everyday. Thank you both for being incredible stewards of the role God gave you to mother. I hope to be like you both as I mother my children, and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sacrifices you poured into David and I. I want to honor you both by being the best mother I can be to your grandchildren. .
I also celebrate every woman who mothers today- whether you mother your children or you mother others around you, you deserve to be celebrated today. .
To those of you longing to be mothers, mothers who have lost children, mothers who can’t be with their children today, and children who have lost mothers- I’m thinking of you and I am also celebrating you today. I know this day can be filled with pain, but I hope you know you are deeply loved. I wrote a blog last year on Mother’s Day (link in bio). I never could have guessed how much would change in a year, but every word of this still rings true. It rings true for me, and it rings true for you. Mother’s Day is for you, too.
#mothersday #celebratemoms #pregnantafterloss #lovemymom
We are excited to announce that after 6 long years and 8 heartbreaking losses that we are expecting TWINS this October!! I won’t share all of the details here, but just know that this pregnancy and both of these babies are nothing short of absolute miracles. .
We still don’t have any answers as to why we lost our first 8 pregnancies and we don’t know why this pregnancy has been different except for this: He is the God who heals, He is the God redeems, and He is the God who restores and rewrites our stories. I cry everyday at each of the little details He is writing into our story and I honestly can’t believe that He chose me to carry these little miracles and to be their mom. We have not taken a single day with these sweet babies for granted. My prayer for them and for our family is that everything about our stories and theirs would point people to Jesus- the one true gift and our ultimate redeemer. .
If you are a loss mama or are struggling with infertility, I know how much pregnancy announcements can sting. My prayer in sharing mine is to give you hope that He truly is the God of miracles and He is the God who sees you. He sees you in your brokenness and He is still writing a beautiful story. I think about you so often, and I’m praying for breakthrough and redemption in your story just like He has done in mine. .
Thank you to everyone who has stood beside us the last 6 years, remembered our sweet babies in Heaven (they are each represented with balloons in our announcement photos), grieved with us, hoped with us, and especially prayed for us. Pregnancy after so much loss is incredibly challenging, but it is also immensely rewarding and has taken us to even deeper places with Him. We could never replace the children we lost, but we are immeasurably grateful for these two gifts of abundance God has given our family. We are beyond excited to meet them and kiss their sweet faces... October can’t get here soon enough!! . 📸 @jessimnichols
#pregnancyannouncement #twinblairs #twins #pregnancyafterloss #recurrentpregnancyloss #hopeafterinfertility #rainbowbaby #rainbowbabies #hopeafterloss #hopevibes #octoberbabies
This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. On this day 6 years ago, I found out I was pregnant for the first time. Never in a million years would I have imagined then that infertility- specifically recurrent pregnancy loss- would become a part of our story. It isn’t something I would’ve chosen to write into our story, but I’ve learned over the last 6 years that grief and loss, beauty and pain, joy and celebration, longing and hope can and do coexist in the most beautiful and complex way.
Recurrent pregnancy loss has taken so much from us- eight beautiful and perfect babies, both Fallopian tubes, countless hours spent at specialty doctors visits, and thousands of dollars. It would be easy to write a post about how much has been stolen. But that would only be a part of the story. The Lord has given us so much in spite of recurrent pregnancy loss and fertility struggles. He has given us 6.5 years of a marriage that has not only survived the fire and the trials, but has thrived and become stronger and more intimate that ever. He has given us more beautiful babies than we could hold to love for all eternity when we finally get to Heaven. He has given us resilience, perseverance, and steadfastness I never would have imagined would be possible. He has given us hope when everything seemed hopeless. He has given us His strength when we’ve never been more weak. He has given us a team of wonderful medical professionals that has started to feel more like family than providers. He has given us a community of others who have walked this road to speak life into us and hold us up when we can’t stand.
There have been so many moments in this journey that I have questioned God, questioned His goodness, and questioned His promises. But through it all He has given me the gift of being in His presence through it all. If you are in the depths of the battle of infertility, I want you to know you are not alone. You are seen. You are loved. And your story isn’t over yet. Hold onto hope and know that I am holding onto hope with and for you.
#NIAW #infertilityawarenessweek #infertilityawareness #infertility #miscarriageawareness #miscarriage #recurrentmiscarriage #hope
