Hands On

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces focuses on hands. (And by the way, I never know if I should write it "Iheartfaces" or "I Heart Faces", so it will probably never be the same two times in a row.  Or maybe I'll be consistent within a post, but not from post to post.  Just to drive everyone crazy, because I KNOW you are paying that close of attention to what I write.)  Before I realized that they were deviating from their normal look at faces and giving a little attention to hands, I perused our digital photo library looking for pictures that depicted their challenge title - "Hands On".

At first I was thinking hands on faces, like peek-a-boo or a look of surprise.  Then I thought it could mean a picture of something that is a hands on task or job.  I suppose it's always up for interpretation by those who enter the contests.  I picked out a bunch of photos to narrow down, and then saw on the website that the challenge was about hands, and did not need to include faces, although they could, of course.  I went back to all my choices (and I won't say that I didn't go back through a lot of the other pictures as well) and finally decided to crop one and focus on the hands that were in the picture.

For this picture, I'm going to tell the story...

Several years ago I lost two babies.  The first time I knew something was wrong, but waited it out, hoping and hoping that I was incorrect and worried about nothing; I miscarried at around eleven weeks.  Many months later I suspected I was pregnant again but there was some ostrich action; I did a little sticking of the head in the sand...I didn't want to face head-on the possibility that I might lose another pregnancy.  I talked with my sister-in-law about it quite a bit (while trying to hide from it!), since we were together at the beach, and we had had many conversations about why I might have lost the first baby.  One thing that came up was an imbalance in progesterone levels; she encouraged me to talk to my midwife about the possibility as well as what measures I could take if I got pregnant again.  (I really am trying to keep this short.  It's hard because I think it's a good story!)  In the end, I got a prescription for the progesterone, but I started it too late that particular time.  I ended up losing the baby one week after finding out that I was pregnant.  I felt guilty for not being more proactive.  I began taking the progesterone monthly, just in case, until one month I had a strange experience about which I will withhold all the details.  Let's just say it seemed  fairly obvious that I was not pregnant, and that I couldn't be. 

I did not continue with the progesterone at that time, since it seemed pointless.  I thought I would just save it for the next month.  One week later, however, I felt like I ought to take a pregnancy test.  My boobs were super sensitive just from putting my shirt on...something had to be up.  They were normally non-existent, much less not sensitive.  The test was positive before I even finished peeing on the stick.  All righty then.  At this point I was a week past the time when I should have started taking the progesterone...but I started it anyway.  Things progressed well, in spite of the late start with the medicine.  God showed us that He is truly in charge, and was weaving and forming something amazing, in my womb and in our lives.  Eight months later, there was this...

We were blessed with a baby girl.  We named her Eliana; it means "the Lord responds".  We cried out to Him and He did indeed hear our cries and answer.  Before she arrived, we couldn't wait to get our hands on her.   Once she was here we were able to put our hands on her right away.  And we were and are reminded that the Lord has His hands on, and over, and under, and around, us.

Just like faces, hands are full of stories to tell...head on over to I Heart Faces for more.