Proof that you can win the battle against infertility!!!!

I am proxy posting for my dear hermana about the arrival of her first daughter. I should have done this last week but it has been kind of crazy around my little corner of the world, so finally here it is:

Announcing

Brooklyn Jae Gaddie

Born Thursday, July 1, 2010

10:43 am

7 lbs. 9 oz. of pure cuteness!

This little girl is an absolute miracle. Truly, I think if you look up miracle in the dictionary her picture will be there! Mike and Kari struggled to get pregnant for 5 years...that is right, 5 years before the were able get this little girl. A lot of people do not even know that my sister has struggled with infertility in the past. It has been a very private battle for her, and she has kept it mostly among the family. I think they wanted to have babies pretty much immediately when they were married almost six years ago. They started trying, and I think that the first year it did not happen, they just chalked it up to bad luck. But then it was 2 years, then 3, and on and on with no baby. My sister loves children, and this absolutely crushed her inside. Along the way she learned she has PCOS, a horrible disease that was affecting her ability to conceive. It has to do mainly with your female reproductive anatomy, mainly growing a TON of cysts on your ovaries- but it is so much more than that. It attacks your whole body ( or at least in an extremely bad case like hers it does) and basically shoots your entire endocrine system to hell. Not only that, PCOS had some hard side effects to contend against, it affected her whole body in painful and awful ways.For example, about every four months the cysts on her ovaries would get so big that they would finally burst. It also mimics diabetes with your ability to process insulin and such.

Basically, it sucks.

On top of that we all could not help but wonder, ok- out of all of the crappy people in the world who have abortions or abuse their children etc., how come they all can have kids and not someone who is actually yearning for a baby????? Sometimes life does not make sense.

One thing I can say is that my sister never stopped trusting in the Lord, and her faith in him has made all the difference.

About 3 years ago now they were able to have the wonderful miracle of adopting their son Remington. And we have all decided that maybe he was the reason they could never get pregnant- if my sister had her own babies immediately, maybe she would have missed the opportunity to adopt this amazing little boy and give him the chance at a better life. She adores Rem, and we all knew he was always destined to be a part of their family, but for whatever reason he just had to be baked in a different oven :-) My sister had her pain of wanting a child eased, but she still wanted to become pregnant and give birth if she could.

Then, one day last November, I got the call- she was pregnant! And seemingly out of nowhere. They had just about given up on the ability to conceive, and then it happened! Needless to say we all dropped to our knees and thanked Heavenly Father for his blessings and love that he had shown us with this gift.

Fast forward nine months, to July 1, 2010. She is here now! The baby we thought would never happen is here! She is a precious miracle of joy and we are so happy to have her!

If she is not Mike's spitting image I don't know what she is!

Ok- so here is a little review of the labor/delivery experience. I have never met anyone so brave and amazing as my sister. She was in labor for 41 hours and then they finally had to take the baby via c section.(I don't know what the heck is wrong with the both of us that we cant freaking spit a baby out but whatever. ) She only had an epidural for about 15 hours of her labor, and when they gave it to her it only took on one side of her body because she has a wicked curve in her spine and it just did not go in correctly. Then, they tried to do a bunch of different things to make it work but it was no dice. So they had to reposition it a second time and that time it took pretty well - but she only got the full pain relief for about 5 hours. She got dilated all the way to an 8 1/2, but then she had been in labor so long her cervix began to get swollen and she went back down to a 6. So finally, they decided her water had been broken for too long and she was not progressing properly so they had to do surgery. But Kari was so brave and did not complain once! She is so amazing. They are both home recovering now and she is doing so good! We love them so much and think they are so amazing.

It is amazing how much joy and love a new baby can make you feel...kinda makes you baby hungry huh! Anyway, that is all for now. Welcome to the world Brooklyn!