I was on the phone with a friend the day I received a text that flipped our family’s world upside down. My sister was in her first trimester of pregnancy and was at her routine check-up when the nurse noticed something abnormal in her ultrasound – several markers for Down Syndrome. I remember reading her words, each one of them hitting my heart like a freight train. Down Syndrome doesn’t run in our family, this can’t be true, I told the Lord, begging Him to spare my sister of any potential heartache and hurt. She and her husband had been trying to have another child for years, this couldn’t be the way God would answer their longing.

My heart rejoices today writing this post! For months we have been praying about a ministry Life Lived Beautifully can support. Through a series of incredible circumstances and connections, the Lord led us to Kupendwa Ministries.

“True joy, in fact, is never found in chasing the perfect. It is only found in chasing the genuine life of following Christ. It is the road less traveled, but it is the only road that brings us to true life!”

post from my sister on her journey of infertility, receiving news of the unexpected, and chasing Christ in life’s journey!

The other day I looked down to realize I can no longer see my feet. Our sweet boy has continued to grow and my belly has rounded out over these past few weeks in ways I never dreamed would happen! In all the joys of pregnancy and the hurdles and beauty of a growing belly, I have noticed that not only has my body changed these past nine months, but my priorities have now shifted as well. Just like when I first got married and had to re-prioritize my schedule and daily to-do’s to involve my husband, I am about to embark on another big adventure of re-prioritizing! The moment I saw I had a positive pregnancy test, the Lord began rearranging my schedule.

The dream of becoming a momma is embedded deeply in the fabric of a woman’s heart. I remember caring for my baby dolls when I was a child as if they had life and breath in them! As the years progressed and I grew older, this longing continued to grow and strengthen. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was always simple and always the same – “I want to be a wife and a mom!” Regularly I would have conversations with friends about how many kids we wanted to have someday. My answer was usually five, on average. Everything about marriage, pregnancy, and motherhood looked so glamorous and easy from the outside! As a single woman, I would have done anything to have the privilege of a ring on my finger, a baby on my hip, and a husband to love. If you are single and reading this post, you know this deep, unfulfilled longing all too well!

Last September, our lives changed forever with the taking of one test. I had been feeling unusually tired and my husband noticed that I would frequently get dizzy. In my mind, I just figured my body was doing its usual crazy thing right before that time of the month. Little did I know, something extremely different was happening in my body. God was knitting together a precious child in my womb.

Glancing at the test, the two pink lines caught my eye. Two. Not just one. Two pink lines. I looked at my husband in stunned surprise and held it out for him to see. He led me to the couch and I proceeded to miss the couch and just fall straight to the floor in my usual dramatic fashion. We’re pregnant. We both sat there for what seemed like hours letting it sink in deep. The surprise and excitement mixed with the worry and unknowns filled out hearts with a flood of emotions. The next nine months were going to change our lives. The day we found out we were pregnant was exciting and overwhelming.