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Unexpected Blessings Of Motherhood!
Submitted by: Loreal
Schenectady, New YorkI'm a 35-year-old self-employed, 100% blind woman. For the past 17 plus years I've lived on my own and have been self-employed off and on for the past 18 plus years. I was raised to be self sufficient and dependent on no one as much as is humanly possible. I graduated high school at 18, moved out on my own within a few short weeks of graduation, and began college soon after. I didn't finish, however, as family circumstances prevented me from continuing my education.
In 2007, my best friend introduced me to The Secret and tried to explain the concept to me. She had discovered it shortly before, and she’d already asked the Universe for what she wanted at times, believed she would attract it, and eventually received what she wanted. I was 26 at the time, and I didn’t quite understand the concept entirely even with her trying to explain it to me. She got me the audiobook to listen to, and I later purchased the film off iTunes. As time and years went by, I would try to apply the principles of The Secret in my own life, but never seemed to get it right regardless how hard I tried.
One thing I have always wanted for so many years was to become a mother to a child of my own. For so long I believed this would never come to be, as for the better part of two decades I’d been told I would most likely never have children, and even if I did manage to conceive, I’d almost certainly never carry to term. Over the past 17 plus years since I’ve been on my own and have been in various relationships, everything all doctors at various times had told me seemed to be true.
In March of 2016, by chance, I ran into someone I’d met nearly two years before through my best friend Cheryl. I had gone out with her one Friday night in June of 2014 for dinner and a few drinks, and completely by chance we ran into a friend of hers and the friend’s brother. We talked for a bit that night, and at the end of the encounter the brother and I exchanged phone numbers. For two years, neither of us picked up the phone and called the other after that night. Then, in March of 2016, we met up completely by chance and started spending time together right away. It wasn’t long after we reconnected that we began seriously dating.
One of the things we’d discussed at the beginning was us having children together. He started having his children at age 20, and by 2016, his first three children were grown and on their own, two boys and one girl. He was also raising his then 11-year-old daughter on his own as a single father. We had discussed the possibility of having children together, and he said he would love to have one more child with me, his fifth. I kept telling him what the doctors had told me for so many years. He insisted that he had faith, and that if it was meant for us to have a child together, then we would be blessed with a child of our own. After so many years of everything the doctors having said being true, I had absolutely no belief that I would ever be a mother.
Throughout oru first year together, I had introduced my boyfriend to The Secret film and audio books by Rhonda Byrne. He has unwavering faith or as he calls it, blind faith. While I’ve tried to have blind faith like he does, it just never seemed to work out for me. I’d have a great start with the three-step process, asking the Universe for what I most wanted. I’d always get hung up on the second step though, the believing it would come to be mine without question. As time went by, I’d keep trying in fits and starts but never seemed to get anywhere with applying the principles fully in my everyday life.
As our first year anniversary was fast approaching and his birthday was coming on even faster, we decided to go away for a long weekend down to Atlanta, GA with one of my best friends and her daughter. We wanted to do something that would fit the mold of a combined anniversary get away for the two of us and birthday present for my boyfriend. We made the arrangements and booked our trip away for a few days.
A month later I began feeling off. I have two pre-existing conditions, and either one of them alone could cause severe nausea and vomiting at any given time, much less the two of them together. In the back of my mind I began to question whether I could possibly be pregnant. I kept dismissing it, reminding myself that for so many years I’d been told with little to no certainty I would never have children of my own. I discussed it with my boyfriend, and we agreed if I wasn’t feeling better in another week we would take a home test.
Well, the following week went by very quickly and slowly all at once. By the end of the seventh day, I decided I was going to just do the test on my own and find out for sure. The box said it would take two minutes or so for the results to be shown, and within 30 seconds the test popped positive! . I called my boyfriend, told him to come home, and when he did, my girlfriend and I told him and showed him the positive test results. My first ultrasound showed I was two months pregnant and would be due in November of 2017.
Now, I am eight plus months pregnant, and my boyfriend and I are over the moon about becoming parents to our daughter, due in just a few short weeks. While I am nervous and acting no different than any other first-time mother-to-be, I feel such immense joy and gratitude at being given this most precious gift I believed would be truly unreachable for so long. The gratitude I have for this wonderful gift and miracle of life is simply inexplicable for me. I am so thankful every day for each kick, each movement, and each uncomfortable position our daughter moves into and puts me in. I am excitedly counting down the weeks and days until I can hold our daughter in my arms and feel her move outside of my belly. We are so excited to welcome her into this world.