Easter

My husband and I had wanted to have a baby for a long time and we were beginning to worry that it was not going to happen for us. We were thrilled when we discovered that our first, long-awaited and much longed-for baby would be born on Easter Sunday. One Sunday morning early on in the pregnancy, I began spotting. We made a trip to the Emergency Room. After a brief examination and ultrasound, the doctor told us that there was no heartbeat and that I was having a miscarriage. He offered to do a D & C to remove the fetus right there and then. Distraught and brokenhearted, I went home to grieve instead. I returned to the hospital a few days later for a follow up appointment. After a puzzling result from a routine blood test, the doctor sent me for another ultrasound. In a small, dark room we saw the steady flicker of our baby’s heartbeat on a monitor.

Ever since he was no bigger than a kidney bean, this boy has never been one to play by the rules or to go by anyone else’s timetable. Instead of arriving on Easter Sunday, he surprised us by showing up a couple weeks early. On the day he was supposed to be born, we took him to church for the first time. On this, our baby’s first Easter, we joyfully celebrated the miraculous resurrection of the son of God, and of our own beloved son: