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God has allotted to each a measure of faith...

Romans 12:3

Ahh. There’s nothing like relaxing in the whirlpool. The feel of the water pounding sore, tired muscles. The gurgling sound bubbling in your ears. The water splashing in your face until you’re fighting for your very breath as you’re pulled under time and time again. What? That doesn’t sound like an enjoyable day at the spa. There’s good reason for that! You’re not relaxing in an elegant spa!. You’re caught in nature’s whirlpool. Your arms are flailing, you’re kicking your feet as hard as you can, but nothing seems to help. You’re drowning! Water is splashing everywhere and you cannot find sure footing to save your life.

Suddenly, you hear a voice telling you to relax. Relax? Are they crazy? How could you possibly relax in the middle of a whirlpool? How can you relax when you are so out of control? Your life is at stake and someone is telling you to relax?

As a last desperate measure, you decide to give it a shot. Nothing else is working. If you’re going to die anyway, you may as well try everything you can. You stop fighting the force of the water. You stop trying to go the direction you think will lead you to safety. Without understanding anything, you decide to place a tiny measure of faith in the wilderness guide standing on the side of the river and try to relax. You force your muscles to soften and you allow the water to do with you what you will.

An amazing thing has happened! You find that you are finding your way out of the whirlpool. What? It worked? You’re kidding! Even though it seems to have lasted an eternity, amazingly enough, your rescuers can reach you and you are finally pulled to safety! In this bizarre turn of events, you are relaxing in a whirlpool! (Not quite the image you had in mind, huh?)

What a whirlpool of emotions you face when infertility invades your life. What a whirlpool of decisions that must be made. What a whirlpool of thoughts and fears. There are times you honestly feel like you are drowning in the waters of infertility and every thought, every decision, everything you do just gets you sucked further and further into infertility’s depths. What could be more frustrating?

Someone telling you to relax?

Okay, okay! I know! I always promise to never tell anyone struggling with infertility to “RELAX!” But when looking through the filter of God’s plan for your life, I believe it to be appropriate to encourage you to relax. Relax in His plan for you. You can trust Him to have a good plan for your life.

Does this mean you won’t be frustrated any more? Does a guy relaxing in a whirlpool stop being drenched? Of course not! But God has given you a measure of faith. Activate the faith He has placed in you and relax in the knowledge that He really does hold your life in His hands.

Eventually, you’ll find the whirlpool fading away. Infertility won’t always be the intense struggle it is for you today. Activate your faith in the One who promises to guide you through this terrifying time in your life. You may just find the splashes of fear fading away.

-Beth Forbus
 
Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

Genesis 21:1-2

Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Is the creation of a child in a barren womb too hard for God? No! Is the adoption of a parentless child to the specifically predestined family too hard for God? No! Is a fulfilled, contented happy life without children too hard for God? No! Is peace for the childless couple too hard for God? No! Is God receiving glory through this difficult experience too difficult for God? No!

When Sarah heard the Lord say that she would conceive a child in her old age, she laughed and then denied it when confronted. Why? She was afraid--probably afraid that she had been caught and may have feared the consequences. We all get afraid through our infertility: afraid of the toll on our marriage, relationships with friends and family, afraid of dying a lonely old person with no children or grandchildren, afraid of missing out on the joys of pregnancy or parenting. If fear haunts you, maybe you feel a little like Sarah did. Fear rises when the end of the cycle looms, so we laugh and pretend everything is okay. “Okay, so it didn’t work this month. That’s fine. We have a trip planned anyway. I wouldn’t want to be sick over the holidays.” All the while the fear of holding your child only in your hearts and not in your arms grips you tighter and tighter.

Jump over to Genesis 21:1-2. The time had come. Sarah’s barren womb was about to spring to life! The Lord took note of Sarah as He had said and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. God gave them Isaac at the appointed time. This is such a beautiful example of God’s ultimate wisdom. He knew the absolute, exact time that Isaac needed to be conceived. Not one day early, not even one month too late.

But Sarah was 90! Wasn’t that too late? Not even one millisecond! God knew exactly what child would be conceived each and every cycle. He knew exactly when to allow conception to occur to achieve His perfect plan. Through Abraham and Isaac’s lineage came the earthly family of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look at the people affected by Isaac! What if he had been born to Abraham and Sarah in their 20s and 30s when they probably felt he should have been? That child would not have been the same person! Everything would have been different!

Perhaps that’s what God is waiting on with you and your family. Perhaps He’s waiting on just the right time to bring just the right child into your womb. Perhaps He’s waiting for just the right adoption to go through to bring just the exact child He has planned for you to love, nurture and raise in your heritage. Perhaps He’s waiting until just the right time to give you the peace you need to know that its okay to stop trying. Whatever His plan, as He reveals to you what you need, you can rest in the assurance that His plans are perfect, His timing is impeccable, and His heart and love for you are unfathomable.

Taken from Baby Hunger: Biblical Encouragement for Those Struggling with Infertility by Beth Forbus (c) 2003.
 
OH my goodness, Sarah! Thank you SO much for the daily devotionals you post! The posts from the 23rd and 24th are speaking SO DEEPLY to my heart right now.

I've been on a break from facebook and all TTC info, forums, etc. for the past few days. Monday evening as I was going through my newsfeed, I saw two more pregnancy announcements and was able to keep my cool, but then when a former co-worker of mine (who I am not very close to and is 6 months along) sent me a text asking if I was pregnant yet and how long we'd been trying, I almost lost my ish. I knew at that moment that I needed to remove and quiet myself to have it out with God and let Him change my heart toward the season we are in. So far, it's working well. I'm feeling a lot less angry and bitter, which is making me a MUCH more pleasant person to be around.

Still praying for everyone here. Listening to KLOVE this afternoon, I heard an artist liken us crying out to God to a parent waking up and running into a nursery when an infant starts crying at 4am. We need our Father, and He is ready, willing and excited to comfort us whenever we are in need. It warmed my heart, and hope it does yours, too!
 
QueenKingfish said:
OH my goodness, Sarah! Thank you SO much for the daily devotionals you post! The posts from the 23rd and 24th are speaking SO DEEPLY to my heart right now.

I've been on a break from facebook and all TTC info, forums, etc. for the past few days. Monday evening as I was going through my newsfeed, I saw two more pregnancy announcements and was able to keep my cool, but then when a former co-worker of mine (who I am not very close to and is 6 months along) sent me a text asking if I was pregnant yet and how long we'd been trying, I almost lost my ish. I knew at that moment that I needed to remove and quiet myself to have it out with God and let Him change my heart toward the season we are in. So far, it's working well. I'm feeling a lot less angry and bitter, which is making me a MUCH more pleasant person to be around.

Still praying for everyone here. Listening to KLOVE this afternoon, I heard an artist liken us crying out to God to a parent waking up and running into a nursery when an infant starts crying at 4am. We need our Father, and He is ready, willing and excited to comfort us whenever we are in need. It warmed my heart, and hope it does yours, too!
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Praise God, I'm glad you are getting something from the posts and that you're letting God be God in your situation.

It's so nice when we look at Him as the loving father who wants nothing more than to care, comfort and love us.

I know God has good things in store for you and I can't wait to see what happens.
 
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good...
Genesis 50:20

Infertility can be such a confusing time of your life. Nothing is turning out the way you planned. It can seem like God is doing everything just the exact opposite of the way you are praying. What does it all mean? Satan will try to convince you that God has abandoned you. He’ll try his slimy best to persuade you that God doesn’t even remember that you exist. Do confusing times mean that God has forgotten you and simply doesn’t work for your good? Does it mean He doesn’t care? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Have you ever thought about what a God of paradoxes we serve? He can take a great hurt in your heart to bring great comfort. Only He knows how to take an excruciating sorrow and replace it with outlandish joy. Have you ever considered that God knows how to take the devastation you feel from your infertility, and use it to show you how much He really, truly loves you? Let’s examine the track record of our God of Paradoxes:

God used a virgin girl to be the mother of the Messiah.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:22

God uses your weakness to show you His strength.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10

God uses foolishness to display His wisdom.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
1 Corinthians 1:27

God used the death of His Child to give you life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

God used the guilty to showcase His forgiveness.

"Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ...

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
John 8:4-5, 11

God used an infertile couple to populate the world.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you...As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.
Genesis 17:5-6,15-16

God takes Satan’s best efforts to destroy you, and uses them for your good.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..
Genesis 50:20

-Beth Forbus
 
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28



My nephew is an avid golfer. After a busy week as a dedicated pastor, John-Paul loves to swing away at golf balls in his back yard to unwind. He doesn’t unwind alone. He and his wife are loving “parents” to Sadie, a six pound Yorkshire Terrier who considers it her poochy duty to chase and retrieve each and every golf ball John-Paul slams into the depths of their back yard.



One evening, my nephew was enjoying his favorite pastime with his favorite pooch when a terrible accident happened. Just as he took a swing at the ball, the Yorkie leapt right in front of the golf club. Before he realized what had happened, John-Paul hit the dog right between the eyes with the golf club. With a horrible yelp, Sadie took off running, dazed and confused. John-Paul tried desperately to catch her so that he could take care of her wounds. Hurting and scared, Sadie ran away from the only one who was able to help her. “Come here Sadie! Come to me!” She hid under the bed and refused to come out. Imagine this tall, athletic youth pastor with nothing more than his feet sticking out from under his bed, sweet-talking a terrified, whining Yorkie!



Eventually, John-Paul was able to coax Sadie out from under the bed. No doubt he looked like a direct descendant of the Dukes of Hazzard as he broke every speed limit in the county trying to get the poor pup to the vet. The good news? Sadie was fine. The not so good news? John-Paul has to go chase his own golf balls now.



Have you ever noticed how when life throws a problem at us we tend to react in one of two ways: we either run to God as hard and fast as we can, or we turn away from Him. When we face the pain that infertility can bring, we can be a little like Sadie. We don’t understand what is happening to us and all we know is that we hurt. We tend to run away from the only One who is truly able to soothe our wounds and heal our hurts.



Sadie hid under the bed, hurting and alone, not knowing that if she would turn to John-Paul instead of away from him that he would provide the help she needed and would see to it that her pain was alleviated. Have you turned away from your Father? When frustration and hurt are your constant companions, and you cannot understand how the One who allowed infertility to enter your life could possibly be the one to provide your healing, do you hide under the proverbial bed?



Look what Scripture tells us about God’s attitude toward us when we are hurting and tired of the day to day struggle of infertility:



He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3



Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28



I waited patiently for the LORD;

And He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,

And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God

Many will see and fear

And will trust in the LORD.

Psalm 40:1-3



As for me, I shall call upon God, and the LORD will save me.

Psalm 55:6



God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1



I lift up my eyes to the hills—

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

Psalm 121:1-3

-Beth Forbus
 
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16

After a long day, my husband and I decided to relax and watch a movie. We pulled up the Pay Per View menu offered by our cable company and began to read the synopses of romantic comedies. One by one, we read the brief introduction to selected movies and passed on each one. One finally caught my eye, but not for the reasons you might expect. The final line of the synopsis was what did it. It read like this:

“The young man was in love with his beau...”

I have to admit, I was a little confused. I thought I had seen this movie before. I don’t remember a young man being in love with another man. It was a sweet comedy about a heterosexual couple falling in love. What was this all about?

Then it hit me. I couldn’t see the end of the synopsis. There wasn’t enough room on the screen to write out the whole story. When we clicked on the “continue” button, the whole story changed.

“The young man was in love with his beautiful bride...”

I started laughing so hard that my husband must have thought I’d lost my mind. When I saw the rest of the description of the movie, my understanding of the movie changed. Only a few more letters took their place on the screen and everything made sense.

You’ll never guess what it reminded me of!

Do you realize that the story of your life has not been totally revealed to you yet? All you see right now is that you don’t have a baby. Remember, you cannot see the entire description yet. There’s simply not enough room in your heart and mind to contain all that the Father has planned for you.

What if the synopsis of your life was displayed for you like the description of my movie?

She will not have a baby...

Perhaps the continued synopsis reads more like this:

She will not have a baby...as easily as she thought she would, but eventually the baby will come.

She will not have a baby...until God’s perfect timing plays out.

Or maybe your story is more like this:

She kept waiting and waiting and waiting...as God revealed His plan to her step by step.

She felt like her heart would burst into a million pieces...from the explosion of joy God gave at the birth of her first child.

She never had a true, intimate relationship with God...like the one brought about through her struggle with infertility.

Who knows? God knows. You cannot know the entirety of God’s beautiful plan for your life. He’s known every day of your life since before time began. If you are struggling with what God wants for this season of your life, remember, you cannot see the full synopsis. Trust Him to write out your life as He sees fit. He knows what’s coming next, and He knows just how much to reveal to you right now.

Only a few revelations can altar your understanding. One day, as God reveals His plan to you in His perfect timing, the story of your life will make sense. Perhaps your life will be a beautiful story for other hurting women to watch and learn from.

Don’t forget to watch the credits. “The Story of Your Life”--written by God!

-Beth Forbus
 
Hi girls! God has blessed us with our long awaited baby <3 I got my BFP a couple of days ago! We are praying that this one will make it safely to term <3
 
How exciting for you markswife! Congratulations! A h&h 9 months to you!
 
markswife10 said:
Hi girls! God has blessed us with our long awaited baby <3 I got my BFP a couple of days ago! We are praying that this one will make it safely to term <3
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:happydance: praise God!!! Congrats!!! I never get tired of these posts:haha:

I will be praying for you:hugs:
 
Thank you GodsJewel for sharing this link I look forward to posting. My siggy tells most of my story I guess but heres a little I'm turning 40yrs old tomorrow, my dh is 50 we have been ttcing for 5.5 years now. I have fibroids which I had removed in 2010 nine to be exact but they have decided to grow back, I've had multiple procedures to remove scar tissure from my uterus but all fibroids are in the muscle. We have had multiple medicated IUI cycles, and just went through our 1st IVF cycle which resulted in 4 embryos 2 transferred but I still got a BFN, we have 2 frozen and plan to get started with FET soon, in fact I have an appt tomorrow. The only thing that I have left to hold onto at this point is faith and Gods word.
 
FutureMommie said:
Thank you GodsJewel for sharing this link I look forward to posting. My siggy tells most of my story I guess but heres a little I'm turning 40yrs old tomorrow, my dh is 50 we have been ttcing for 5.5 years now. I have fibroids which I had removed in 2010 nine to be exact but they have decided to grow back, I've had multiple procedures to remove scar tissure from my uterus but all fibroids are in the muscle. We have had multiple medicated IUI cycles, and just went through our 1st IVF cycle which resulted in 4 embryos 2 transferred but I still got a BFN, we have 2 frozen and plan to get started with FET soon, in fact I have an appt tomorrow. The only thing that I have left to hold onto at this point is faith and Gods word.
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Welcome sweetie :hugs:

There are women on here with wonderful stories of how God turned their situation around for the good.

We may never know why God has us on this journey, but trust that He has your best interest at heart and will bless you and your hubby in His perfect timing.

I've said this many times on here before...I believe God has placed that desire in your heart for a reason and that is something to hold on to. He is the giver of good things and has nothing but good in store for you.
 
Congrats on the bfp, Markswife! Praying your little baby is sticky and you have a happy and healthy 40 weeks!!
 
congratulations Marskwife:happydance: Praise our God for your rainbow:hugs:

and a very warm welcome FM:hugs: we all have to in the end,give all our worries,fears and all to the king of Kings,our God almighty,please reamin in faith and belive it in your heart that you will get to be a mommy in his time:hugs:
 
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