My Story....Part 4

To read "My Story" from the beginning, click here.

We arrived at the clinic really late. I was a nervous wreck. I really wanted my husband to say something like "I drove you all this way, you will go through with this." However, my wise husband just told me that he would do whatever I wanted. He would turn around and drive me home and never make me feel guilty about it. I told him that I would stay at the clinic and see let him know when he arrived the next morning if I could go through with it or not.

I went into the clinic and it appeared completely empty. Not a soul in site. We finally found a nurse. She checked me in and my husband left. I was still quite nervous so I decided to ask the nurse some questions. (At this point I was really glad I speak Spanish!!) I nervously asked her if there was anyone there. The place seemed so deserted. She told me that yes, there was a couple from the US who had had the surgery done that afternoon. She pointed me to their room and told me to just go see them. They were so nice. They assured me that everything I had read about the doctor and the clinic was true and that their surgery had gone very well. I could feel the Lord's calming reassurance through the voices of these strangers. All my fears immediately melted away. I went to my room and went to sleep and slept like a baby.

I was awakened at 6 to start the prep for surgery. My husband arrived and we were wheeled into the operating room. I had several conversations with the assistant physician and I remember the anesthesiologist (who I remember quite well because he kept scratching my itchy nose for me), but I did not meet the doctor. I only glimpsed him in the hallway as I was wheeled from the OR. I remember groggily saying, "Thank you" to him as I was wheeled past.

My surgery went very well. My husband was very impressed with the surgical team. I was left with 7 centimeters of Fallopian tube on each side and told we had about a 90% chance of conceiving. We left the hospital the following morning and drove 10 hours home. (Not too bad, except for the time I got choked and had to cough for a few minutes. Ouch!!)

I had my tubal ligation in May of 2003, about an hour after my third child was born. When she was 23 months old, in April 2005 we had my tubal ligation reversal. Our first "reversal" baby was born in May 2006. Since that time we have had 3 more "reversal" babies. We are so thankful to the Lord for hearing our cry and giving us more children to love.

Our 4 "reversal" daughters with their sister, baby #3.

You can visit the website for the clinic in Mexico here.

You can read my patient testimony page here.

My Story....Part 3

To read my story from the beginning, click here.

My husband had many reservations about having surgery in Mexico. He told me that we would pray for confirmation. I agreed, because I knew we had found our doctor. I was willing to wait for God to confirm this to my husband. Little did I know that He would send that confirmation the very next day.

We decided to visit a family from church just to encourage them. This family happened to be my husband's cousin. When we arrived, they were having a family birthday party for my husband's aunt, the cousin's mother. I had forgotten to tell my husband that I would rather keep this reversal idea to ourselves (because we had a lot of family members who were not in favor of this). Imagine my shock when he suddenly announced our plans to the entire room. He then told them about this doctor in Mexico. Suddenly his aunt perked up and told us that this was the same clinic where she had her last baby and that this doctor is the nephew of the doctor who had delivered her baby and what a great doctor he had been. She also told us what a great reputation the clinic and the doctor have in the town. Can we say "confirmation"???  I was ecstatic!

So now, my husband was completely on board with me. We made our appointment and planned to use our income tax refund to pay for the surgery. The Lord provided exactly the amount of money we would need. Amazing!

Now the hard part. Our families. Basically my family was in complete shock. They simply could not understand why we would want to do this. They were very much against it. So we pretty much didn't tell them anything. The knew we were planning to do it, but they did not know when, where or how we would do it.

My husband's family was a little different. They were not all in favor, but they weren't completely devastated by the idea of it, either. Therefore, they did know about our trip plans and such.

So April 2005 finally arrived and we took off. Since we had so little support in our endeavor, we didn't feel right to ask someone to keep our children. Once again, our heavenly Father took care of all the details. The hospital would require my husband to be present in the operating room (weird, I know) with me, so we would need someone to keep the children, who were 7, 4 and 23 months. Well, it just so happens that this clinic is in the same town where another cousin lives. He is another child of the same aunt from the birthday party! :) He and his family so graciously agreed to allow my husband and children to stay in their home and to keep the children while Josue was with me in the surgery. Isn't the Lord amazing?

We took our children to Sea World on our way to Mexico, the day before my surgery. We had a great time.
Then the doubts started. The closer we got to Mexico, the more nervous I became. Satan's attacks were fierce. I almost lost the battle.

**To be continued**

To read Part 4, click here.

My Story.....Part 2

You can read the first part of My Story here.


So I regretted my decision to end my fertility, but, sadly, my husband did not.  He was quite content with the three children we had. We had a boy and 2 girls and he felt our family was complete.

Quite surprisingly for me (at that time) I did not nag, whine, complain or even discuss my feelings with my husband. But I did start to pray. I began by praying that the surgery wasn't successful. However, at my postpartum checkup, my OB happily informed me that the pathologist report showed that the tissue removed was indeed, "right Fallopian tube, left Fallopian tube". My heart sank. I had an awful sick feeling in my stomach.

I kept praying. Now my prayer was that God would miraculously heal me. He had made my Fallopian tubes, after all, surely He could grow them back together. (I know that God is completely sovereign and He could have, indeed, grown them back together, or even given me completely new ones, had He so wished, but He had a different plan for me.)

Then I began praying that He would change my husband's heart. I started researching tubal ligation reversals, only to be terribly disappointed by the costs of such surgeries. I knew we would never be able to afford it. Then I found a group that helps fund reversals. I joined their site and learned so much about reversals, as well as about how children are blessings from God and that there are people who actually want lots of children. (That was a concept that was completely foreign to me. I was raised with the typical American mentality of 2-3 children being enough. Or more than enough. <sigh>)

The Lord did work on my husband's heart and he came to the place that he agreed with me that we had made a mistake. He was willing to get a reversal if we could find a way to afford it. (I had joined the reversal funding group's yahoo email group, but they had some requirements that I didn't feel we could agree to. Therefore, I knew that we would be on our own for funding our reversal. Haha....as if God weren't big enough even for the funding part!)

One night my husband was away from home and I was again searching about reversals. I suddenly had an idea. What about Mexico? Was it possible that there was a doctor in Mexico who did the surgery? It would certainly be cheaper. Hmmm...... What I found was nothing short of amazing to me! There was a doctor and he was highly recommended by the funding group I had been following. I was super excited.

My husband, however, was not.


**To Be Continued**


To Read Part 3 click here.

I almost missed it......

I almost missed out on so much. My Esther's baby raspberries and slobbery kisses. Her little hands on my cheek or pulling my hair. My Miriam's sweetness and toddler-talk "I lub ooo". My Lydia's hilarious personality. My Sarah Grace's joyful chattering. I almost missed it all. These four little girls are the result of our tubal ligation reversal. I will tell that story some day. But for now, I'm just oh-so-thankful for my little girls. 


Oh how much I would have missed out on!!! Thank you, Father, for your wonderful mercy.