“This past summer was such a nice break with all of our girls potty trained and sleeping through the night for the first time in eight years… that we started to think seriously about being done growing our family. But as the days went by we began to realize how much we really did want to experience having a son. We even had a few weird moments as we were buckling everyone into the van or gathering everyone around the dinner table where we all got this feeling that someone was missing. We knew in our hearts we needed to try for our boy One. Last. Time.
One night as this all became clear to us, we got our girls together and shared with them what was on our hearts.
‘We need your help, we need you to pray with us as we ask the Lord to send our Abram this time,’ we said.
We have had the name Abram picked out since the first pregnancy nine years ago. We prayed that night and many more nights after that, and even as we were blessing our meal the girls would sneak in, ‘and please remember to send us a boy this time.’
The first 20 weeks of the pregnancy were very emotional as we imagined what our family would look like either way, but we were in no way prepared for the emotions we would feel come the day we would finally know.
We got to the ultrasound department to check in and my mom, who works in the hospital, was waiting there to give one last hug. It was all building up. As we settled into the room my husband, David, gave the ultrasound tech a heads up, explaining that we already had four girls and this was our last try for a boy, so this was going to be emotional either way. Yes, we were so thankful to see a well-formed baby growing in there without any missing or extra limbs, but the instant I caught a glimpse of what I thought was a penis I LOST IT, and just sobbed with happy tears.
I gained composure long enough for a second peek and as I was balling my eyes out again, David asked the ultrasound tech to ‘confirm what we’re looking at.’ And she did. I cried and cried the happiest tears ever. Another nurse came in to drop something off at one point and said, ‘We’re all hearing a lot of tears coming out of this room and just wanted to make sure, you’re happy, right?’ Yes, it was the happiest day of my life. I can’t count how many times we asked the tech to go back and make sure his boy parts were still there. Eventually David asked, ‘Would it be inappropriate to ask you to get that in 3D?’ And sure enough, she did! She said that was a first for her.
When we arrived to pick up our girls from their aunt and uncle’s house, our oldest, in noticing my puffy face, sighed, ‘Oh boy.’ She later explained, ‘I could tell you had cried, so I figured it was a girl and you were really heart broken.’ But the girls had fun with the eggs. Our second youngest, who loves all things ‘girl,’ wanted to have fun dressing up a baby girl and was initially grumpy saying, ‘I don’t like baby boys,’ but within the week she came around and is just as excited as the rest of us. Now as we pray over our meals, the girls always remember to thank God for our baby boy.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Angelica and David Augustyn of Antigo, Wisconsin. Submit your story here.
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