Happy Mother's Day!

Despite my title, this morning in church I also had a reminder that Mother's Day isn't a happy day for everyone. It also reminded me that I shouldn't get so stressed with my children or worry so much about school reports etc. They're here, they're healthy (praise God) and they're happy.

My Husband & I hadn't been together very long when we discovered I had medical issues that might mean we would never conceive naturally so at the age of 20 & 23 respectively we had already decided we would adopt if necessary.

In 2000 I thought I might be pregnant but none of my pregnancy tests were positive, but just k knew something wasn't right. Finally I had to have a blood test to work out what was wrong & my GP said he thought I might be right & sent me for an ultrasound. The scan revealed a baby, but no heartbeat. I was completely devastated.

In 2001 my first little miracle, Luke, arrived. Wow, how I fell in love at first sight! I had conceived very easily but due to my condition Luke was born with hip dysplasia. He spent 2 weeks on traction, 23 hours of the day with only 1 hour off for cuddles & baths. If he cried in the night I couldn't cuddle him. After traction came an op & the almost 4 months in a hip cast which came off when he was 13months old. Luke also had a large strawberry birthmark on his left eyelid. This started to impact his vision as it was making the eye an irregular shape so had to start a series of patching the good eye to strengthen the bad. The strawberry mark was eventually removed by a remarkable plastic surgeon at Great Ormond Street hospital when Luke was 3.

Miracle number 2, Oscar. Also very easily conceived but a difficult pregnancy with lots of scans as I was bleeding. I felt very sick most of the time too. I went into premature labour at 34 weeks & Oscar was born by emergency c section as he was in respiratory distress. When he was born he took one breath then stopped breathing but thankfully he started to breathe again. I didn't have my faith then but I remember thinking 'why have you let me come this far to take him from me now?' It occurred to me very recently that I must of been talking to God. I didn't meet Oscar until the following day as he was in special care & only had a Polaroid picture. My Husband pointed out how his leg looked really turned in & as we had already been told by Luke's orthopeodic surgeon that all my babies would most likely have hip problems we assumed Oscar did too. A scan when Oscar was 12 weeks old revealed he has too healthy hips, yay! We did later discover that Oscar had a congenital nasal defect & one nasal passage was blocked. He had 2 operations to sort that out.


During our many trips to hospital we encountered very sick children & all of them had completely remarkable parents. We would be in awe of them & it proved how trivial our childrens ailments were in comparison.

I believe God chooses who faces these challenges because he knows that they will use their experiences for the good.

Texts for life
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Happy Mother's Day all,

Esther xx