At 30 weeks pregnant, Bianca felt a contraction. It wasn’t even close to time yet and not only that, but Bianca and Joseph were planning to be out of town for a Labor- day weekend get- away. Bianca had 10 more weeks to her due date.
She was hoping the doctors would minister some medicine to stop the process and in no time she would be home. She hoped the incident would not last more than a few hours and she would be fine. She was early, it was probably all just a false alarm but the contractions kept coming five minutes apart.
That night they knew they would need a miracle, but the miracle they got was one they could never have anticipated.
“So, when are you going to have kids?” People would asked the couple.
Bianca and Joseph had been married for over ten years after seeing several fertility doctors they concluded that both of them brought an element of infertility to the attempt to have children and as such, the only way to get pregnant would be to try just about everything including homeopathic approaches and IVF among various other methods but nothing happened.
Month after month trying for a baby to no avail and when it did, it ended in a miscarriage. Life took them from New York to Idaho that finally opened a way to becoming parents.
Bianca explained to me how at the beginning of the IVF process, a patient is given a two-week course of shots to stimulate the ovaries to produce a lot of eggs at one time. Right before ovulation, the doctors do a surgical procedure to go in and remove all those eggs.
After so much ordeal examining each egg they ended with four viable eggs. They chose to transfer two embryos but ended in a miscarriage which is normal since it only has a 30% chance of success and were left with two embryos. From the two remaining they chose to transfer one embryo and this time it resulted in a long- awaited healthy pregnancy.
Around the same time, Bianca and Joseph hoped that Ruby would have a little sibling but this time was through a dear friend Nicole who found herself miraculously pregnant with the remaining embryo.
One third option to have a baby in their arms could also have been through adoption but to start the adoption process it required home studies, more probing, official questions about their finances, the state of their marriage, their plans for the future, Etc. So for now, two pregnancies were enough.
And by all accounts, both pregnancies were normal. Bianca and Nicole were both healthy and strong and so were the babies. They were both free of complications. Their baby girls were growing on track and there were no red flags.
Until Bianca unexpectedly began feeling contractions that were coming sharp and fast and much too early. Meanwhile, Bianca’s life was feeling more and more like a medical drama. Doctors and nurses were rushing around her. She was put on medication to help the 30-week-old baby’s lungs and various other drugs to try to slow Bianca’s labor and stop her contractions. When they came to see if it had worked, she was fully dilated and a premature baby was born.
Sure enough on September 3rd 2015 Ruby May Merkley made her debut, weighing 3 lbs. 3 oz. It was during the night in The Philippines where I lived and didn't know anything until the next morning when I saw the text “She is here.”
All of this happened while I was sleeping so I got on the next plane I could to come over to meet my granddaughter. Little Ruby would have to stay in the NICU for weeks. She didn’t have any major health problems, but she needed to eat and grow before she would be big enough and strong enough to come home. I often thought of why? But then I realized that I needed to be grateful for the miracle that took place.
Bianca wrote: "When I’m standing at the crossroads of fear and gratitude, I’ve learned that I must choose vulnerability and practice gratitude if I want to know joy. I’m not sure that it will ever be easy for me, but I have learned to trust this practice… I feel loved, and am gently reminded that I am not alone, that God was with me, is with me and will continue to be with me always. “
Proverbs 3: 5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
“This has been a favorite scripture of mine for about as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until I was an adult though, that I really started to cling to these verses as if my life depended on them. There is something about trust that I feel like I am learning over and over again. It’s as if every challenge and obstacle in my life has been to teach me this one thing– trusting God.” Bianca
Ruby returned home one week before her actual due date and today she is celebrating four years of life and for that, I am grateful!
Con amor,
Vero
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