Paisleigh turned three on July 18th! Three! How is that possible?
I was thinking back to when Greg and I decided to start trying to have a family. We were living in Nashville, TN and had been married for two years! Life was wonderful and perfect! We were loving being married and really enjoying being newlyweds! So, we felt the timing was perfect to start a family; however, God had other plans for our little family.
Before I even knew I was pregnant, I received a phone call from my Mom one evening. Now, if you cannot tell, I come from a very close family. We love each other and have always lived very close to all of our Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and especially each other! So, living so far away in Nashville was especially hard on me; however, I truely believe it was perfect for Greg and I not to be so close to family and having to ALWAYS rely on each other for everything!
So, back to the phone call....It was a phone call I NEVER imagined I would recieve from my Mom. She had not been feeling like herself and had been to a Kenny Chesney concert and felt something strange in her breast. I believe that was God, nothing else. I believe God placed Mom at that concert, with the music and vibration so loud and so strong that she could feel something inside of her. That is incredible and a miracle and I believe that amazing God moment saved my Mom's life! My Mom is an amazing, and her intuition is so incredible. She went to the Dr and sure enough, there was a lump. They immediately performed a procedure where they went in and removed the lump and an area of the tissue surrounding it. The results came back as Stage 1 Breast Cancer.
Greg and I had been on a date that night, we went out to eat at Chili's, and when we got home my phone rang and it was late, so I knew something was not right. My Mom's voice sounded sad and shaky; however, I could tell she was trying to hold herself together and be strong! As soon as she said what it was, I fell apart. My Mom is my rock, the woman I look up to most in this world, she is perfect to me. In an instant, I realized that my world would be forever changed. When we hung up, 1600 miles away, all I wanted to do was be home, to be with my Mom and to be with my Family. I fell on the floor and cried and prayed for God to save my Mom, to heal her and to hold her!
Greg and I made the decision as Husband and Wife to move to New Braunfels, Tx. To be closer to Family and still be near Austin, Tx so Greg could continue to focus on his career in music. I am so blessed to have a Husband who was willing to pretty much give up his life, his career to make a move back to Texas! I will forever be grateful for my amazing Husband.
The day we were moving out of our little townhome, our first home, I took a pregnancy test in an empty bathroom. It was positive. Among everything that was happening; cancer, moving, life...it was amazing. When we made it to New Braunfels, I found an OB Dr immediately. Ecstatic, we went to our first appointment. We found out that day that our insurance did not have OB benefits, we were to pay out of pocket, $3000 dollars, BEFORE we saw the Dr. WHAT?? We were young, excitied and unprepared! Luckily, I have a husband who is WONDERFUL financials and we had an emergency fund going. We were finally able to see the Dr, a VERY impersonable Dr, and with smiles on our faces and our hearts racing, the most devastating news in the world. No Heartbeat.
That appointment turned into the second worst day of my life, right behind hearing the word cancer out of my Mom's mouth a few weeks prior, No Heartbeat.
They did not immediately perform a D&C; however, I had to wait a week and a half to come back to make sure my dates were not off. In the meantime, I had blood work every 3 days to make sure my levels were dropping. My Mom had begun Chemo and Greg was on the road. A couple of weeks later, after a re-check and a confirmation that this was not our time to have our baby, at 9 weeks pregnant, a D&C was performed. I will never forget that day, EVER. My Mom was there with me as well as Greg and it was awful, sad and heartbreaking. However, my Mom was fighting cancer, I could survive and stay strong through this. We needed each other to be strong! My Mom stayed with me the next couple of days and I was so thankful! I was sad, lost and confused.
However, through the miscarriage, through my Mom's courageous battle with breast cancer we kept God by our side and in our hearts and our Faith remained. It was hard and I questioned myself sometimes, but I always knew that God was with me and Jesus was in my heart.
Greg and I were able to pull ourselves together, we bought our first home, we had insurance (with maternity benefits) and we were stable and ready! God's timing in perfect and must NEVER question that, EVER! Four months had passed and I was home doing laundry and Greg was on the road with his job. I was late, just by a few days and I thought, what the heck--I know it will be negative and I will start tomorrow. I took the test and went on my way with laundry and cleaning, actually kind of forgetting about the test on the bathroom counter. I walked by, probably about 45 minutes later and glanced at the test. It was POSITIVE, but it didn't really register....I kept walking and stopped....and backed up and took a second glance.
Positive!
My heart was racing, all of the emotions from the first positive test came flooding back, and then all of the emotions from the miscarriage came flooding back and then God placed His hand over me and I was immediately comforted. I cannot explain it, I knew this time was going to be different. This was our time to start a family. God is so amazing! I called Greg out on the road and he was ecstatic.
It was almost a year to the day that I had the D&C performed...IN THE SAME HOSPITAL ROOM where I had the procedure performed, that I gave birth to our BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT Blessing from GOD, Paisleigh Marie Brownd!
Our family was there, and this time my Mom had a head full of beautiful curly hair and CANCER FREE, and we were happy...not sad! There were tears, but tears of joy and hope!!
I cannot believe it has been three years! I honestly believe that God's timing is perfect, not only was our little blessing Paisleigh given to us to help heal from our miscarriage and to begin a new chapter in our lives, but I believe that she was also given to us in perfect timing to help my Mom stay strong through her battle. She always says that her and Paisleigh's hearts are connected...and I believe that!
God! It is ALWAYS God! Praise Him!
We celebrated Paisleigh's 3rd Birthday with a Hawaiian Pool Party, and it was a blast!
Somebody is 3!! (I could not figure out how to flip the picture, sorry)
My sister, Angie and our cousin, Alexis
GOGGLES!
Miss Abigail (our 2nd Blessing) and Nona
Gregory--The Hubbie
My Sister and Me
The Cake, which turned out Perfectly!
Nona and Grammie
I did not intend on this post being about everything above. I was just going to do a simple "birthday" post; however, I am glad it did!
Thank you for allowing me to share a little part of "me" with you!
Have a wonderful week!
Lauren
