The Powers of Heaven

A few weeks before all of this happened...one of Becky's closest friends was made the relief society president in our ward. If there was ever a perfect person to be the relief society president in our ward and while we were going through this trial it was Andrea Murray. Andrea immediately went to work with others from relief society. She communicated to the ward what was going on and we immediately felt this giant show of support from so many people that we love so dearly. The Sunday after Houston was fast Sunday. We had several people we know join us in a special fast. In fact, I believe that there were people all over the country...and my family up in Canada fasting for our little boys. This was indeed a special opportunity to fast and pray for these boys. Becky asked me to give her a blessing. This is always such a unique honor. It is one I am still in awe of being able to do. We decided that we would fast all day (not Becky....she had to eat obviously)....and then she would receive her blessing that night. I spent all day in prayer in my heart. I remember bearing my testimony and feeling such gratitude to our ward for the outpouring of love and support we had felt. I also remember feeling such gratitude to my Heavenly Father. To this point....every challenge we had faced had come with a solution that was so close. He was literally showing us that his hand was guiding everything. I felt such an outpouring of love from my Heavenly Father and from my Savior. I am not sure I have ever felt it's equal...even on my mission. Later that evening after an emotional and spirit filled day...I asked a close friend (Mike Romney) to come and assist with the blessing Becky had asked for. I had been somewhat nervous about it all day because I felt a strong pressure to say the right things and to be in tune to hear the will of God. I had even gone through some specific things I wanted to bless her with. Mike anointed Becky and I sealed. As I started the blessing...every thought I had previously been thinking left my mind. Thoughts and feelings rushed through my heart. As I was voicing the blessing (which was clearly coming from God)....I found myself pausing for what seemed like a long time but was probably only 30 seconds. I was feeling prompted to do something I didn't feel worthy of. I began to tear up as I realized what God was telling me to say. I remember the words coming from my mouth...."I call upon the powers of Heaven to heal your body and provide the nourishment that both of our children need to survive. I bless your placenta to provide the blood that is needed to Isaac so he may survive." These were words I would have thought to be reserved for prophets or talked about in the scriptures. Who was I to call upon the powers of Heaven?....but it had been done. I know from whence it came and I know that a change immediately started inside of Becky. Though it was not immediately evident....the powers of Heaven had entered our home and changed our lives forever.

Houston....we have a problem

The night before the Houston trip I had gotten home around 1 AM from a work conference in Phoenix. Of course my flight was delayed by over 4 hours because there is always horrible weather that delays flights in Phoenix! ha! Anyways...I got home about 1 AM....and we started the drive to Houston at about 5:30 AM. The appointment was at 10. When we got to Houston we met with some of the most wonderful people you could ever imagine. We had a 3 hour ultrasound to measure everything imaginable on the boys and take a good close look at what was going on. I don't think I have ever been more impressed with a Dr. and his staff then I was with this team. They felt as much like a unique support group as a doctor. Dr. Johnson spent about 90 minutes with us going through every possible scenario that could be causing the problems. It was determined that it was simply too early to know for sure what the root of the problem was. All options were discussed with us. We were very encouraged by what we heard. It was very scary to hear percentages of survival and discuss complications to expect. Needless to say...it was a very emotional day. After the visit to the Dr. we went over to our great friends, the Tanner's. Jenny Tanner has been Becky's best friend since they were little girls...so this was a great chance to see her and for Becky to get some support from someone she loves dearly. Jenny was also expecting....so it was great to see them. We left later that evening and drove home with hope. We had heard some really scary news....but we had a plan. Becky would be on bed rest and need to eat a very big diet of fat and protein so the placenta could get "beefy" in the words of Dr. Moise. We had expected that we would have to be back in Houston sometime in the future. Boy....were we wrong. This would be our only trip to Houston. What a blessing...

The Ultrasound

I can't think of many things more exciting than the ultrasound where you get to find out the sex of your baby. What a cool thing we get to do. So...Becky and I had been so excited about it. Her OB had referred us to a perinatal specialist who dealt with twins and other high risk pregnancies. Pretty standard....nothing to worry about. We go into the ultrasound room and the technician spreads the goop all over Becky's tummy and we get to see our twins! It took about 2 minutes....and sure enough they were sharing a placenta. Identical twins! And to top it off....2 boys! Identical twin boys! Can you imagine that? Two identical twin boys that look like me? The world was about to get exponentially better looking! So....the tech continues with the ultrasound and is raving about how everything looks with "baby A".... better known as Declan. She does all the measurements and checks the blood flow and he looks great! She was laughing and congratulating us as we were so happy to be having two boys. Then she started measuring "baby B"....better known as Isaac. Instantly there was no more laughing. She didn't say anything. She completed all the measurements and blood flow checks. She then turned to us and said "Dr. McFarland will be here to see you shortly." Not sure if you've ever experienced a nurse or tech say something like that...but I can assure you that it is rather unnerving. A few minutes later, Dr. Melinda McFarland walked in and very cordially and professionally shook our hands and took a seat. She proceeded to tell us that Isaac was 50% smaller than Declan. They were sharing the same placenta and Declan was taking about 70% of the fluid in the placenta. Also, the blood flow to Isaac from the umbilical cord was very sparse. All of this meant that our perinatal "specialist" was sending us to another "specialist".....this time in Houston. There were several things that could be causing this condition. The specialists in Houston (Dr. Moise, and Dr. Johnson) are the premier specialists in the country dealing with placental sharing issues and what is known as twin to twin transfusion syndrome. The best in the business....3 hours from home. We went home very nervous. We had no idea what any of this meant. All we knew was that if a specialist was sending us to another specialist....that it must be serious. Dr. McFarland was concerned that the boys had twin to twin transfusion syndrome. She also talked about a few other possibilities. The bottom line for them was that Declan was getting plenty of nourishment and Isaac was getting next to nothing. We were told to prepare for the very real possibility that one or both of our miracle boys would not make it. In fact, it was recommended to us that we "selectively reduce". Can you imagine making a choice to "selectively reduce"? We were given a miracle of a second baby....and were going to choose to turn that miracle away? As if...we know that God gave us this miracle and we felt he would prepare a way to make things work. For now....it is off to Houston and find out the problem and begin making it better!

Double your pleasure...double your fun

Two weeks after finding out we were pregnant, Becky finally went to go see her OB (Dr. Farhart). I don't remember the reason...but I was unable to make the appointment. I had been having feelings that there was something going to be difficult about our road. We had both felt for years that we would someday have twins. Again....can't explain it. We just did. Lo and behold...that afternoon I got a call from Becky. We were indeed pregnant. We were indeed pregnant with twins! So....this is what was going to make it so different from the other times. Twins! Wow...talk about excited. We had wanted 4 kids when we first got married, but due to our problems getting pregnant thought it would never happen. We were ecstatic just to think about having 3 now....so to get to have 4??? Amazing! This was indeed going to be tougher!

The First of Many Miracles

Becky and I are so blessed to have such an amazing family. We have had our children Jackson and Alison for a while and we love our little family. We prayerfully made the decision to add to our little family over two years ago. Obviously our plan and God's plan didn't match up. (Don't you just wish he would give us what we want when we want it....) After a year went by we decided to visit fertility specialists. I was told that it would be very difficult for me to have children again due to extremely low sperm counts. I was started on some medication that we hoped would simply get us to a point where we could try a procedure like Envitro. This was something that was very emotional for us. We wanted so badly to add to our family and felt that we had received answers to prayers that we would have an addition to our family. To say we were discouraged would be an understatement. We continued praying and hoping...and believing that it would happen. We had decided to seriously look into procedures. Prior to being able to look into procedures we experienced the first miracle. I remember the day vividly. It was an early Sunday morning and I was still asleep when I heard Becky gasp in the bathroom and yell my name. I was panicked initially. I thought something was very wrong. I jumped up...went to the bathroom and saw that something was actually very right. Becky had taken a test and it came up positive! We were going to have a baby! While we were so excited...we were nervous. This was something we had wanted so bad and it was finally here. My dear sister and sister in law had just experienced miscarriages and it was very close to our minds. You could say we were on egg shells about it. While at church...Becky asked me to give her a blessing that night. I remember feeling all day that there was something that was going to be different about this pregnancy. It was somehow going to be harder than the other one's. I didn't know how or why...but I felt this feeling. Becky received a blessing that night and she was told that she would have a "special connection" with the baby. There was a peace that came at that moment that was indescribable. At that moment...I knew that our baby would be born. I can't explain it...but I knew. Becky felt a strong sensation herself that she immediately began to feel a special spirit inside of her. Our miracle had occurred. What an amazing blessing!