God’s Wonder – Meeting Ara Part 5

One of the funniest moments I had was when God asked me to buy a pregnancy kit. As soon as He said it, I argued and said I didn’t want to waste money buying a kit to do a test when I knew I wasn’t pregnant. God chided me and told me He didn’t ask me to test myself but only to buy a kit. I learnt from that one conversation to always pay attention to God’s instructions so that I don’t miss the specifics. Imagine me thinking I was meant to test myself when all He said was get the test kit. With my tail between my legs, I went and bought the kit. I didn’t even tell my husband as I didn’t want to get his hopes up thinking I was pregnant when I clearly wasn’t.

I learnt once again on this journey that faith doesn’t make sense. Some of these encounters, or moments I should call them, with God didn’t make sense to the rational mind. Who buys a dress for a bump you don’t have yet and don’t know when you will have? How can you dance on a piece of paper at midnight because God said so? Who keeps saying the same bible verses over and over believing that they would become her reality?

One of the things I had decided to do whilst waiting to have children was to have fun. There was no point putting life on hold because I wasn’t pregnant. So, in that time, I hung out with my friends. Hubby and I travelled and kept up our date nights. I continued my blogging and helping women. At the same time, I created business tools that would improve my team’s productivity.

I had obviously come to a place of rest in God for me to even stop counting my cycles pedantically. I missed my period and didn’t realise I had. That’s where the Holy Spirit in us is so beautiful. I was at work on this fateful day, doing God knows what, when I heard Him say I was late on my period and I was pregnant. I immediately paused. He said check your diary, your period is late. The speed at which I opened my diary was phenomenal. There it was right before me. I was four days late. He then reminded me of the kit He told me to buy. He said, now you can use it. I could hardly wait to get home to take the pregnancy test.

As soon as I walked in the door, I went straight to my room and brought out the kit. The time between peeing on that stick and seeing the result seemed to drag. Finally, there it was before my eyes… 1-2 weeks pregnant. I had never seen a pregnant result before and finally, here I was with one. I can’t even begin to explain how I felt. Elated, excited, happy, tearful all at once. I think I screamed first, then I started praising God before I got on the floor still praising Him. I spoke in tongues for I don’t know how long just praising Him for this miracle.

Then I got straight on the phone to hubby who was in Germany on a work trip. He wasn’t in his hotel room yet but he would call me when he got in. I am not a very patient person (God is working on me) and I could hardly wait for him to call me back. As soon as he called on FaceTime, I put the stick in front of the camera. He was shell shocked. And then he was happy. And then reality hit us once again. We were going to be parents. We were finally going to be parents!

Can I just say that the enemy is a sore loser! Five days after we found out I was pregnant, I started bleeding. I can’t even begin to explain the panic that wanted to set in. My hubby was back home from his trip so I just calmly asked him to get my phone so, I could call the GP. The GP asked me to come in straightaway and performed a pregnancy test. It confirmed what I already knew. He called the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit at Watford General Hospital. I went in for them to assess what was causing the bleeding.

At this stage, the nurse in the unit couldn’t see a heartbeat. The only way to tell if I was pregnant was to run a hCG test to see if the pregnancy hormone was in my system and do a vaginal scan. With the test, I was need to come back in 48 hours to redo it. This was because it allowed time for the hormone to change in levels. After my blood was taken, I was told the pregnancy hormone in my bloodstream was really low. This may be because it was still early days in the pregnancy. There were 2 likely outcomes with the test. My hormone levels would go up, showing I had a viable pregnancy or they would go down, meaning I had miscarried.

Those next 48 hours were hard! I can’t lie, they were. Don’t know how many times I said out loud to myself “I will not miscarry, the Lord will fulfil the number of my days” and “I will not cast my fruit before time because I am a tither.” Then to upset me further, the junior doctor who took my blood after 48 hours misspoke. I actually can’t forget her tone. “Oh, your hormone levels are really low, you may have had an early miscarriage.”

I remember the Holy Spirit telling me to not respond. All I wanted to do was shout at her and tell her where I was coming from. Instead, I smiled and said nothing. Waiting for the phone call from the hospital with the result was hard. When the phone call came and it was positive news, I can’t even begin to explain how happy I was. For weeks after though, the fear of miscarrying lingered. I had to keep making confessions that I wouldn’t miscarry.

I remember what broke the fear of losing the pregnancy from me. Reading Psalm 91 in The Passion Translation. I was free. The Holy Spirit gave me an understanding of where I stood as a child of God. For the enemy to touch my baby and I, he was going to have to go through God as I was hidden in God. Such reassurance! I became so confident, I was almost cocky at one point. I went from not telling people I was pregnant or when I was due to boldly even telling them my exact due date. That’s what happens when you know who you are in God. Your confidence goes through the roof.

had a generally good pregnancy. Did I have one or two hiccups along the way? Yes, I did but by most people’s stories, I had a good pregnancy. I even got on the plane twice with my bump. My husband wasn’t too pleased about one of my trips but I wasn’t letting pregnancy slow me down. I kept up my confessions; praying for my baby, her development and her future.

Thirty-eight weeks and two days after conception, my waters broke, and I went into labour. Even whilst I was in labour, the enemy was still trying to mess with me. After being in labour for almost twenty-four hours, I accepted an epidural. As I said yes to the epidural, the enemy whispered to me that despite all my confessions and prayers, I wasn’t having a supernatural childbirth. As he said it, I heard “But God is good no matter what” in Bill Johnson’s voice. It doesn’t get more supernatural than that!

On the 16^th of May 2018, after 27 hours in labour, Arabella Araoluwa Ifeanyichukwu Oluwapamilerin Oduah was born via emergency caesarean section. I didn’t get to meet her another hour as I had to be put under general anaesthetic to complete the procedure. My lung muscles had relaxed as a result of the epidural and I couldn’t breathe. Her names signify this journey and her assignment. Arabella means answered prayer. Araoluwa means the wonder of God. Ifeanyichukwu means nothing is impossible with God. Oluwapamilerin means God has caused me to laugh.

This journey has been interesting to say the least. There were highs and lows but God was constant. There were moments of doubt and fear but also, unshakeable faith. I’ve asked God many questions on this journey. He has said many things to me. The one that stands tall over the others is this; encourage others. 2 Corinthians 1:4 is it. “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”