Lessons Learned While Trying to Have a Baby: Tender Mercies

{God often grants us the most tender of mercies in the midst of our darkest trials; the difficulty is to notice the light in the darkness.}

“The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works (Psalms 145:9).”

After my egg extraction, I was put on progesterone shots for a month. These shots help your body prepare for and maintain a pregnancy. The progesterone shot was extremely scary for both David and I for several reasons. First, the medication was in oil form causing it to take longer to move from the syringe into my body. This also caused large pockets of hard, painful spots under my skin where each shot had been given. Additionally, the needle was much bigger. Finally, the most worrisome thing about the progesterone shot was that it had to be intramuscular, meaning not only under the skin but in the muscle as well. Because of this, David had to give the shot to me correctly. If he didn’t there were a lot of things that could go wrong.

When David asked one of our nurses for help in finding the right spot to give me these shots she laughed. She grabbed a permanent marker and told me to pull down my pants. Then she drew two circles on my rear end with the permanent marker, showing David exactly where to give me my shots. David and I laughed so hard to have me walking around drawn all over with a permanent marker. It definitely helped ease the tension of having to take my shots.

Still, when it came time to take the first progesterone shot we were both scared. David suggested we say a prayer beforehand and I agreed. He prayed that the Lord would help him give me the shot, that his hand would be steady, that he would do it right, and that it wouldn’t hurt me too badly. Then he gave me the shot. I was surprised at how easily it went it and that I didn’t feel much pain. I turned to David afterward and told him he had done a great job. He looked at me funny and said, “I felt like someone was guiding my hand as I put the needle in. That wasn’t me who gave you that shot.” We were both in awe and felt such gratitude that the Lord had guided David’s hand and helped him with that first shot.