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Our Birth Story Testimony/Nuestro testimonio (Escrito en ingles y español!)


For as long as I can remember, I’ve always felt like my prayers were a direct pipeline to the Lord. “From your mouth to God’s ear,” is the saying, and countless times from my youth through early adulthood, all I had to do was utter the prayer, and it became God’s will. One of my favorite verses was Matthew 17:20, with the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains. At 16-years-old, I prayed for a car and within days an affordable one became available to me. At 20-years-old, while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Israeli police wouldn’t let my Lebanese friend into the country with the rest of our group, which left us stranded at the border between Jordan and Israel for hours. Not even 20 minutes after praying for her passage, did the Israelis let her through. These are some of the more grand prayers that have been answered in my life, but smaller ones have also traveled straight to God’s ears. Whenever I have lost anything, I’ve always prayed to Saint Anthony, patron saint of lost things, and he has never let me down. 


So it caught me by heart-wrenching surprise and I nearly lost my faith, when my countless prayers for a child went unanswered. 


In 2015, right after Francisco and I began trying, I got pregnant. We were overjoyed and immediately began picturing our new life with a child. Since it was my first pregnancy, I had no idea the risks or complications that were possible, and at that time I didn’t know that 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, nor did I ever imagine I would soon be a statistic. But when I started bleeding at 6-weeks pregnant, I knew immediately something was gravely wrong. It took the doctors over two weeks to determine that I had an ectopic pregnancy, something no amount of prayer could solve, and by that time the pregnancy had progressed so far, the course of action had to be surgery. The day before my 29th birthday became the worst day of my life, when I lost both my baby and my left fallopian tube. 


As soon as I had recovered from the surgery and with the doctor’s approval, we began trying to get pregnant again, but to no avail. Getting pregnant became my daily hope and prayer, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 it says, “Pray without ceasing,” but days turned into weeks, which turned into months, months into years, and still I wasn’t pregnant. The doctor did tests and tests and assured me that while I was less fertile because I only have half of my working parts, I still was physically able to get pregnant… it just wasn’t happening. 


I began enlisting other prayer warriors, for as Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” We prayed with my mother in her little cottage at the beach in Mystic, Connecticut, we prayed with Jamie and Byron in our living room, we prayed with Sandy in the dark back corner of this sanctuary, we prayed with my sister-in-law’s church in New Jersey and we prayed with these pastors here at this altar, over and over, but still… nothing.


Watching friends and family members get pregnant broke my heart, even seeing strangers with burgeoning bellies filled me with jealousy. Why was it that teenage girls and unwed mothers seemed to have no difficulty conceiving, while I am married, gainfully employed and own my own house and I cannot have my own child? Surely if God could bless Sarah with Isaac when she was 90-years-old, He could answer my heart’s desire, too? “When will it be my turn?” I cried out to the Lord and in response… all I heard was silence and my own sobs of rage. And I began to worry that God had closed his ears to my prayers.


The summer after my ectopic pregnancy, a friend of mine told me she shared my story with her aunt, who was a pastor from Puerto Rico, and that her aunt said she wanted to pray over me. Somehow the summer disappeared and that prayer time never happened. The following summer, my friend again said her aunt wanted to pray over me. I said I welcomed her prayers, and in an unfortunate turn of events for their family, my friend’s mother-in-law passed away, so the aunt happened to be at my friend’s house in Framingham one night at the end of July. My friend called me and told me her aunt was there and wanted to pray for me. Audelina and I hurried over. We sat at the dining room table and I recounted my story to this benevolent woman and she listened with sympathy. I couldn’t believe their family had congregated at my friend’s house to mourn the loss of a family member, but they had invited me over and instead were consoling me. After I finished my story, she gathered the family together and they stood in a circle around me in the living room and prayed over me. 


And I got pregnant with Maya the next month.


Feeling her grow and develop and be knit inside my womb by our heavenly Father’s hand over those 42 weeks was so miraculous. She ended up being born 12 days late, and my 24 hours of medically-induced labor resulted in a c-section. So at 8:48pm on May 30, 2017, I laid in the operating room at MetroWest Medical Center, and Maya was born, almost two years to the day of my ectopic pregnancy surgery. 


The Lord transformed the anniversary of the worst day of my life, into the moment of the best day of my life, and my faith in Him was renewed. I learned that He does answer prayers, but some prayers can only be answered on His timetable, and it is the fruition of these prayers that is the most special and births the most amazing things. 


For this child, we prayed and prayed, and the Lord granted the desires of our hearts, just as He did in 1 Samuel 1:27. 


Mi testimonio


Durante el tiempo que puedo recordar, siempre he sentido que mis oraciones eran una oleada directa al Señor. "Desde tu boca a oreja de Dios", es el dicho, e incontables veces desde mi juventud hasta la edad adulta, solo tenía que hacer una oración, y se convirtia en la voluntad de Dios. Uno de mis versículos favoritos fue Mateo 17:20, la fe tan pequeña como un grano de mostaza se pueden mover montañas. A los 16 años de edad, oré por un carro y después de unos días uno carro de precio pagable se puso disponible. A los 20 años de edad, en una peregrinación a Tierra Santa, la policía israelí no permitió que mi amigo libanés entrará en el país con el resto de nuestro grupo, y quedamos atrapados en la frontera entre Jordania e Israel durante horas. Ni siquiera 20 minutos después de orar por su pasaje, los israelíes la dejaron pasar. Estas son algunas de las oraciones más grandes que se han respondido en mi vida, pero los más pequeños también han viajado directamente a los oídos de Dios. Cuando he perdido algo, siempre he rezado a San Antonio, patrón de las cosas perdidas, y nunca me ha defraudado.


Así que me sorprendió con una sorpresa desgarradora y casi perdí mi fe, cuando mis innumerables oraciones por un niño quedaron sin respuesta.


En 2015, tan pronto como Francisco y yo empezamos a intentarlo, quedé embarazada. Estábamos muy contentos e inmediatamente empezamos a imaginar nuestra nueva vida con un niño. Ya que era mi primer embarazo, no tenía idea de los riesgos o complicaciones que eran posibles, y en ese momento no sabía que el 20% de los embarazos terminan en aborto involuntario, ni tampoco imaginé que pronto sería una estadística. Pero cuando empecé a sangrar a las 6 semanas de embarazo, supe inmediatamente que algo estaba muy grave. Los doctores tardaron más de dos semanas en determinar que tuve un embarazo ectópico, algo que ninguna oración podía resolver, y en ese momento el embarazo había progresado bastante, y el único curso de acción tenía que ser cirugía. El día antes de mi 29 cumpleaños se convirtió en el peor día de mi vida, cuando perdí a mi bebé y mi tubo falopio izquierdo.


Tan pronto como me había recuperado de la cirugía y con la aprobación del médico, comenzamos a intentar volver a quedar embarazada, pero no sirvió. Estar embarazada se convirtió en mi esperanza y oración diarias, como en 1 Tesalonicenses 5:17 dice: "Orad sin cesar", pero los días se convirtieron en semanas, que se convirtieron en meses, meses en años y todavía no estaba embarazada. Comencé a alistar a otros en la oración, e incluso oramos con estos pastores aquí en este altar. El médico hizo pruebas y pruebas y me aseguró que mientras yo era menos fértil porque sólo tengo la mitad de mis partes de trabajo, todavía estaba físicamente capaz de quedar embarazada ... simplemente no estaba sucediendo.


Ver a amigos y familiares embarazados rompió mi corazón, incluso viendo extraños con vientres florecientes me llenó de celos. ¿Por qué las adolescentes y las madres solteras parecían no tener ninguna dificultad para concebir, mientras yo estaba casada, tenía un empleo remunerado y era propietaria de mi propia casa y no podía tener mi propio hijo? Seguramente si Dios pudiera bendecir a Sara con Isaac cuando ella tenía 90 años, ¿Podría responder al deseo de mi corazón también? "¿Cuándo será mi turno?" Clamé al Señor y en respuesta ... todo lo que escuché fue silencio y mis propios suspiros de rabia. Y empecé a preocuparme de que Dios hubiera cerrado sus oídos a mis oraciones.


El verano después de mi embarazo ectópico, una amiga me contó que compartió mi historia con su tía, que era una pastora de Puerto Rico, y que su tía dijo que quería orar por mí. De alguna manera el verano desapareció y ese tiempo de oración nunca sucedió. El verano siguiente, mi amigo otra vez dijo que su tía quiso orar por mí. Dije que recibí sus oraciones y, en un desafortunado giro de los acontecimientos para su familia, la suegra de mi amigo falleció, así que la tía pasó una noche a finales de julio en la casa de mi amigo en Framingham. Mi amiga me llamó y me dijo que su tía estaba allí y quería orar por mí. Audelina y yo nos apresuramos. Nos sentamos en la mesa del comedor y conté mi historia a esta mujer benevolente y ella escuchó con simpatía. No podía creer que su familia se hubiera congregado en la casa de mi amiga para llorar la pérdida de un miembro de la familia, pero me habían invitado y en vez de eso me estaban consolando. Cuando terminé mi historia, reunió a la familia en la sala y se pusieron en círculo alrededor de mí y oraron por mí.


Y  quedé embarazada de Maya el próximo mes.


Sentirla crecer y desarrollarse y ser tejida dentro de mi vientre por la mano de nuestro Padre celestial durante esas 42 semanas fue tan milagrosa. Terminó naciendo con 12 días de retraso, y mis 24 horas de trabajo inducido médicamente resultaron en una cesárea. Así que a las 8:48 pm del 30 de mayo de 2017, me acosté en la sala de operaciones del MetroWest Medical Center, y Maya nació, casi dos años antes de mi cirugía de embarazo ectópico.


El Señor transformó el peor aniversario de mi vida en el mejor día de mi vida, y mi fe en Él fue renovada. Aprendí que él responde oraciones, pero algunas oraciones sólo pueden ser contestadas en su calendario, y es la fruición de estas oraciones que es la más especial y nace las cosas más asombrosas.


Para este niño, oramos y oramos, y el Señor concedió los deseos de nuestros corazones, tal como lo hizo en 1 Samuel 1:27.





Comments

  1. Me encantó leer tu hermosa historia en inglés y español~ Felicidades a tu familia y espero que tus hijos cumplen muchos años ❤️

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