Why Hello There Second Trimester!

Week 15 is here for me, and I am so glad it is! I am very hopeful that this second trimester will be much better. Last week on the other hand, was definitely no bueno. My doctor placed me on a Zofran pump which was connected through an IV in my tummy. It constantly pumped medicine in me and was supposed to ease the frequent nausea. Yea… it didn’t at all. In fact, the pump made everything worse. I constantly threw up, couldn’t keep down any food, was severely drowsy and dizzy, and quite unhappy. And to top it all off, it was not fun to sleep with or to have to poke my tummy with. So, we took a leap of faith and disconnected it and stopped all of my medicines. Philip and I felt real strongly about letting God do the healing in His timing and allowing for nature to take its course. Haha who knew I’d be the 1 in 200 pregnancies that “needed” the pump, nonetheless the very rare one who would react badly to it… yea should have seen that coming. Nevertheless, here I am in week 15 and I am excited to announce that yesterday and today have been vomit-free! Woohoo! I promise I can now even start to feel something in my belly! They are flutter-type feelings but also just really strange movements, like there is something in me (which there is haha). It’s crazy!  I am so amazed at God’s creation and what He can do when we place our own agenda aside. Taking that leap of faith was what He wanted us to do so that He could continue His work in us.

And though this time has been quite hard, through it all, Jesus has taught me to remain in His joy. My quiet time has been spent in John as of late; and in John 15 & 16, Jesus talks about joy twice.

In John 15:9-17, God showed me that

• First, abiding in Christ’s love brings joy
• And then, keeping Christ’s commandments will help us to abide in His love which then brings joy
• And lastly, being like & following Christ causes His joy to REMAIN in us & be made FULL

And John 16:17-24 showed me that through the pains, persecutions, trials, rejections or whatever it may be that Christ told us we would face, JOY always comes after it. Specifically, what hit me hard were verses 20-22 which reads “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” (NKJV)

In whatever situation you are in, know that joy does come in the end, but if you choose, you can have joy throughout it all as well. My dad told me something really cool this week that anywhere you read the word “joy” in the Bible, you can replace it with “Jesus”. So in the same way, in whatever is going on in your life right now that needs joy, place Jesus in it and I promise you, you will have JOY and JOY to the FULLEST.

I also want to give a shout out to all of my fellow sisters who are trying to conceive right now. You are strongly on my heart and in my prayers. Your time will come, and when it does, in whatever form it may be in, I hope you can look back at this time and know that you remained in His joy. What a sweet time it will be, but right now can be just as sweet too! I never would’ve thought that pregnancy would be this…interesting and difficult haha but I would never take back anything God chose to allow me to go through. Baby C and I love you all!

With all of that said, let me leave you with what a few of my cravings have been hahah! Note: comfort food was suggested because I had a higher chance of keeping it down (which I still didn't), so no judging zone here!

Be encouraged and Experience His Joy Today,

Erica and Baby C