Miraculous pregnancy
I got married in 1994. Shortly before the wedding I was taken into hospital with deep vein thrombosis in my leg. The doctor said I had a condition that caused blood clots that would mean me taking blood thinners for the rest of my life. He told me that it would be extremely dangerous for me to have children. He also said it would be very difficult for me to conceive and that if I did the blood thinners would cause deformity and terrible damage to the foetus.
My husband and I had both become Christians as teenagers and trusted that God would be with us in our marriage so we decided not to use contraception. I was ovulating very rarely in any case so the chances of becoming pregnant were minimal. At this time there was a period in our church where people wanted to sort things out in their lives. My husband and I both confessed sins in our lives to each other and to other people and we asked for God's forgiveness.
Shortly after that a friend came up to us and said, "I hope you don't mind me saying, but God has given me faith to pray for you to have a child." Then one day in a church meeting our Pastor called me forward and prayed for me. As he did I felt a tremendous peace and also felt an intense heat. I didn't think too deeply about this at the time but approximately three months later I discovered I was pregnant.
Immediately I went to the doctors and they seemed rather anxious. I don't think the consultant thought I would be able to carry the baby. I couldn't take the blood thinners and they warned me there was a significant risk of a blood clot that would be greatly increased by the pregnancy. I had about nine or 10 scans during the pregnancy because the doctors were constantly looking for problems.
They gave me a different medicine - Heparin - that I had to inject twice per day in the stomach. These injections gave me large bruises. Friends were praying, "Lord, please can you sort out this bruising?" From that day on I had no more bruising and the midwife would not believe that I was still injecting myself until I showed her the pinprick holes.
All during the pregnancy people were praying for us. The doctors had told me that the medication would cause the baby to have facial deformities when she was born but she was quite normal and has been ever since. We called her 'Grace' because God has been so gracious to us.
