Chapter
19

One side story to share concerning Elna’s pregnancy with Alex:

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Six months or so after Jackson was born, Elna made an appointment to see her OB/Gyn. Elna had not yet had a period since giving birth to Jackson. She went to her doctor with this concern. He was an odd man to say the least, but Elna really connected with him. He was a pharmacist that later became a physician.

 

On the day of Jackson’s birth, he kept altering Elna’s pattern of labor on and off again. He had her on a Pitocin drip to strengthen her contractions. When they seemed to be going well, he would then completely turn the drip off. Later he would turn it back on, and then off again. His logic in this made no sense to me at the time. After Jackson was born and the doctor was there waiting on the placenta to be delivered, he decided to apologize for his erratic behavior with the Pitocin. He said, “Hey. Sorry about the delivery taking so long and the on again off again pattern with the Pitocin. I split up with my wife today, and I’ve been meeting with my attorney. I would think the meeting was over, but then we would need to meet again.” Yes. Jackson’s delivery was dependent on the timing of the doctor meeting with his attorney to end his marriage.

 

Well, six months after Jackson’s birth, Elna returned to him to investigate why she still had not had a period since delivering Jackson. He ran no tests, but he gave her a shot to “bring down her period.”

 

That evening, I asked Elna how her visit with the doctor went. She said, “OK. He gave me an injection to make me have a period.”

 

I said, “I assume he tested you to make sure you aren’t pregnant before doing that. Correct?”

 

She said, “No. I couldn’t possibly be pregnant?”

 

I said, “Well I know it’s highly unlikely, but it is still possible.”

 

She said, “It took us 9 and a half years of marriage and fertility drugs to get pregnant with Jackson. There’s no way.”

 

We still had plenty of EPT pregnancy tests in the house from the pre-pregnancy days, so Elna took at test. The test revealed an undeniable POSITIVE.

 

Well, “Yes. Way.”

 

For a while there was pure panic. Had the doctor given her something that would now cause her to abort? We scrambled to call his office. We broke out book after book to investigate what the drug she was given would do. The picture in my head was tiny baby Alex holding on tight in Elna’s uterus the way Tarzan would swing from vine to vine in a jungle. Well baby Alex survived and thrived. The child that God clearly wanted in our life was on her way. My wife who the doctor’s nurse said would “never have a baby” was pregnant with her second child after no pharmaceutical help and minimal husband and wife interaction. God made the way.

 

Jeremiah 1:5 New International Version

 

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
   before you were born I set you apart;
   I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”