She said: “God told me you’ll have a baby by this time next year.” That’s a very sensitive statement to hear when you’re experiencing infertility! But I have a story to tell you…

Three years ago this week, our daughter was born! I remember hearing my husband whisper these words to our tiny baby in the delivery room:

“We’re so glad you’re here.”

WE ARE SO GLAD that she’s here. She brings joy to our lives every single day! And we hold her extra close since her brother passed away a few months ago. Today I want to pause and tell the story of what happened four years ago this week.

In the spring of 2017, I had been attending our church’s women’s Bible study for several months, and one morning I had an opportunity to share my testimony with the group. I shared about some things I had been writing, and I told the women how my husband and I had been struggling to have a baby.

Either that same day or the following week (I don’t quite remember), a woman who I barely knew told me she had been praying for us to have a baby. She said that she had been reading the story of the Shunnamite woman in the Bible who was promised a baby within a year. She then said, “God told me that you will have a baby by this time next year.”

I politely responded with “thank you,” but in my heart I was thinking other things such as:

“I’ve seen people given this message then NOT have a baby.”

“We’ve been trying to have a baby for nearly 7 years—I can’t get my hopes up about this.”

I didn’t believe that we’d have a baby in a year—like the Shunnnamite woman, I didn’t want to get my hopes up! I tucked her words away in the back of my mind and didn’t think about them again for a while.

(Note: This woman seriously prayed and sought counsel before sharing these words with me. I do not recommend saying these words to anyone experiencing infertility without some serious prayer and counsel!)

After years and years of negative pregnancy tests, I was 37 years old at the time, and we finally had a health insurance policy that covered some fertility treatment. The fertility specialist told me that simply based on my age and the years we had been trying to conceive, that we had about a 1% chance of natural conception each month. When the woman at Bible study told me she believed that God was going to give us a baby in a year, we were just beginning the IUI process for the first time.

During our years of struggling to have a baby, I wrestled to trust God’s goodness. Too often we perceive God’s goodness toward us based on the things He does for us, or the speed by which He answers our prayers. Disappointment was a negative feeling I often fought. Disappointment that this was my life in my mid-thirties. I’ve written a lot about that topic since, both in my children’s book Seasons: A Picture Book, and in my latest book Beauty in Barren Places: Seeing God’s Goodness Here and Now.

June 2017 rolled around and I was sad. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were hard. At the end of the month, I learned that the first IUI didn’t work. That very week, a woman prayed for us at church, and followed up with me the next day. Her email said: “I see God walking up to you both and peeling off this great big label that is plastered on you that says INFERTILE. He puts His arms around the two of you and the love of His presence washes away all traces of that falsehood so that the fullness of His blessings can begin to flow unhindered in your life.”

Initially, I wasn’t happy to read those words. I never intended to wear the label “infertile” – it was simply my experience for 7 long years at that point. However, I decided to set aside my feelings and just receive the prayers on our behalf. No matter how that label got there, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that God really did remove it. We didn’t realize that something literally shifted in our lives that week.

Our July schedules didn’t allow for an IUI. And God determined that it was finally His perfect timing for our family. During a month when I thought it wasn’t likely we’d be pregnant there was a glimmer of hope and I still took a pregnancy test. For some reason, I used an expensive digital test for the first time, instead of a cheap test trip. To my surprise, for the first time ever, the pregnancy test read “YES.”

God said YES to our 7 years of prayer for a child.

Then I remembered the conversation with the woman at Bible study. She prophesied that I would have a baby within a year. I looked back at my calendar – sure enough, she had heard from God on our behalf! I had shared my testimony at Bible study on April 5 and our due date for our miracle baby was the following April 3.

God not only hears our prayers, but He still speaks to His people—and He still does miracles. Our daughter’s life is a testimony of that!

I share this story, this testimony, to spark hope in others, and to declare that I have seen God open barren wombs. I believe that He can do it again. If He did it for others, He could do it for me. If He could do it for me, He can do it for you. Don’t stop reading here though, I have one more thing to say…

I believe that God is a miracle-working God. My daughter’s life is a testimony of that. An aspect of God’s character that I’ve pondered in recent years is that He is GOOD. He’s good regardless of what happens. As our daughter turns 3 this month, we also remember that her brother is not here with us – He was stillborn in December just 6 weeks before his due date. He’s in Heaven. The week that he died, God reminded me of the life and death of John the Baptist, and I sensed God saying, “Do not be offended by me.” God didn’t prevent my son’s death or do a dramatic miracle. That does not change God’s goodness or His ability to do miracles. I wrote about it in this post and I hope you read it.

Here’s a post I wrote several years ago (before I was a mom) about the Shunnamite woman: “Don’t Get My Hopes Up”

And here’s the story of finding out we were pregnant with our daughter: Jesus Said YES!