With 6 You Get A Minivan

 

Well, it’s happened at long last. After over 10 years of marriage and being open to life we have just purchased our first…minivan.

We suspected that this day would come, although a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) late last year had led us to believe that baby number six may not be a possibility after all.

For those unaware of this rather prevalent condition, hormonal imbalances result in eggs not attaining maturity. Instead these immature eggs stay inside the ovaries and form cysts. This results in unpredictable fertility, and in extreme cases, infertility. Pregnancies are not impossible, but they are not so easy to achieve.

Additionally PCOS interferes with your metabolism and many sufferers find themselves with a higher risk for diabetes and cholesterol problems.

To suggest we were surprised at this diagnosis was an understatement. I mean, we’d had five children in ten years of marriage and we’d had no trouble in conceiving those.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t have children,” said my GP, “only that you won’t find it as easy to fall pregnant.”

And so, like many others, we rode the rollercoaster of infertility and I discovered along the way, that I was not ready to say goodbye to being open to life.

Some months later, well into my new diet and exercise regime precipitated by my PCOS diagnosis – I am already showing signs of insulin resistance and my risk factors of diabetes are now through the roof thanks to a prominent family history – we discovered that we needed to spend quite a bit of money on our then, current, car.

We were inclined to spend the money and keep driving it. Aware that I was experiencing another long cycle hubby not so jokingly suggested that I take a pregnancy test in case we needed to buy a new car before we spent all of this money on the current one.

I dutifully purchased one and took it, expecting the results to be negative.

But they weren’t. It turns out I was almost eight weeks pregnant and didn’t know.

And my husband’s response?

“Well, I guess I’d better find us a new car.”

And find it he has. It may have meant a long drive back from the Gold Coast for him, one that saved us over $10,000 off the price of a new minivan, but it’s here and it’s shiny newness is a beautiful reminder of yet another blessing we expect in July of this year.

Although we question why God would entrust us with more children – surely there are better parents than us – we are so very grateful to be thus blessed.

Even if it means I am now the driver of a minivan.

 

 

 

 

Originally posted 2018-02-14 15:00:09.