Babies, lots of babies

She had always planned on having LOTS of children...growing up as one of only two left her dreaming about what it must be like for some of her friends...older brothers, younger sisters. 

She was well on her way with one beautiful child when she miscarried. A baby boy. A sad time in her young life.

In her 19th year, her annual Pap Smear came back with questionable results...evidence of cervical dysplasia. [Cervical dysplasia is precancerous changes of the cells that make up the lining of the cervix, the opening to the womb; changes are detected by microscopic analysis of cell samples taken from the cervix during a pelvic exam (such as from a Pap smear).] Referred to a specialist, she signed all the necessary permissions and went under the knife, fully trusting in the medical profession. She had been scheduled for a "cone biopsy," to ascertain the extent of the damage. When she awoke, the pain was excruciating. She felt like the victim of a magic show (where someone gets sawn in half) gone terribly wrong. The Demerol injections helped with the pain, but also made her sick to her stomach, and it hurt too much to heave. She was informed that her uterus had been taken, but she retained her tubes and ovaries, so hormone replacement therapy would not be necessary. Now she would have NO MORE children. Ever. While her body healed, her mind did not. She sold everything she had, lock, stock, and barrel to a character known as "Jim the Swapper" in one fell swoop and ran away, leaving her one child in the capable arms of her mother who was already helping raise her anyway. She needed to get away from everything, if only for a short time.
Living in Daytona Beach one block from the ocean proved to be the medicine she needed, and she was soon ready to return home to her family and beautiful child. Two friends would make the trip home with her, in her VW bug aptly named "Rosy" because that was it's color. Running out of funds two-thirds of the way home, the three sold blood for gas money. You do whatever it takes. Fifteen or so years later, employed as a Medical Secretary, she used this opportunity to send for her medical records from that horrendous operation she had endured. Imagine her surprise when the Pathology Report revealed that not only had all the odd cells been eradicated during the biopsy (making the hysterectomy unnecessary), they had found one abnormality in her womb...….a baby. Psalm 34:18: The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.