Welcoming Xiao Poh!

On 12 January 2011 Wednesday night at 8pm, a miracle happened to me.

The story goes like this.....

I just had my baked salmon dinner and I was home alone. Darren had a night assignment. I wasn't particularly very late in my period but I just had this nudge that I should perform a home pregnancy test (hpt).

So I took out one of those online test strips I purchased and telling myself even if it was a negative, I should be too bothered. Because the recommendation was always use the first morning urine which had the most concentrated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG is a pregnancy hormone).

And then, my eyes popped out, big and wide!

online HPT

I couldn't believe the test result. I got a positive?! I took out another brand of HPT from Guardian, to confirm it was a true positive.

Guardian HPT

The test result didn't take very long to show 2 clear dark lines. Yes, by this time my eyes were swelled with tears of joy and gratitude. My God my God, Thank you for Your faithfulness. What have I done to deserve your goodness!

Of course, I didn't forget the papa-to-be. I called Darren in my trembling voice and announced this happy news. His reaction was "God is so good!" Truly our God is so good to us that we can offer our eternal thanks and praises.

Okay, I still had a little teeny weeny bit of doubt. So we bought the ClearBlue Digital HPT to test the next day.

ClearBlue Digital HPT

The window showed that I had conceived for 2-3 weeks. Thank God for this baby!

I also heard that when one is pregnant, the ovulation prediction kit (OPK) would turn up positive as well. So I experimented with online OPK strip.

online OPK

and also Watson's OPK

Watson OPK

Both gave me a strong positive within seconds. I don't know what's the science behind it but I never got such a strong positive in my trying period.

To God be the glory!

This baby is a testimonial of God's faithfulness to us. We had gone for fertility check at KKH sometimes in Oct - Dec 2010. Darren's result was good but I didn't fare very well. I remembered the numerous of blood tests I had to go through, the harsh remarks from the doctors and the painful hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to check if my fallopian tubes were blocked. In the end, the doctors just concluded harshly that I couldn't ovulate and I just had to take medication. I wasn't convinced because their conclusion was based on one cycle blood test.

Anyway, the last doctor we seen, she was so adamant on it and harsh to me. I remembered I was sitting in her room and she was so impatient with me, like "Just take the medicine and get out of the room". So we took the prescription but never felt good about it.

I was deliberating if I should take the medication. I really didn't feel good so I prayed long and hard. In the end, I thought to myself. Creation is by God and I shouldn't be even needing medical intervention. So I NEVER took the medication and just committed this whole journey of trying to conceive onto His hands. When I partook the Holy Communion, I declared that my health had been restored fully because of His strips at the cross. All my diseases were bore by Him when Jesus died for me 2000 years ago.

Come January 2011, Pastor Prince declared that this is a year that will be dripping with God's goodness and he made a comment that this is also a year of fertility. I took it even with more conviction that I made a right decision not to depend on medication and man's effort.

So imagine how I felt when I saw the HPT result. I didn't even know how I conceive and when I conceive. But I know truly this is God's effort and not by us.

me @ week 12

Now that I'm at week 14, starting of my 2nd trimester. My heart is still full of gratitude and everyday, I look into the mirror with my growing baby bump, praising His holy name and giving thanks to Him for giving us this treasured baby. I know each time, we look at Xiao Poh (our pet name for baby now), we will be reminded that God is truly a God of faithfulness, of love and full of wonderful Grace. We are determined to bring up Xiao Poh to walk in His path so that Xiao Poh will also glorified His name.

(PS : I will share more of pregnancy journey in my next few posts)