Two miracles.... and Counting

As many of you already know, Brandi and I just welcomed in the arrival of our second baby boy - Isaiah Cooper Shoemake! We are so excited about our growing family and like most parents consider our newborn a blessing and a miracle from God. But I wanted to take an opportunity to share with you a part of the story that you probably don't know and why both of our boys are such an amazing gift from God.

When Brandi and I got married we both decided we wanted a big family with as many children as God saw fit to bless us with. We also couldn't find any good reason to delay the process, since at the time it was taking most of our friends months to get pregnant. To our surprise and joy we were able to get pregnant within a month of our wedding! We were humbled by God's grace even then, but it got even bigger on the day of Eli's birth.

We had prayed so hard for a natural birth and even prayed against Brandi having to have a C Section. The day he was born I spent the entire day pacing back and forth in the delivery room praying for God to answer those prayers. Needless to say we were a little disappointed when 21 hours into labor the doctor felt like a C-section was unavoidable and that Eli could be in danger. At the same time we had total trust in God and were really excited to finally meet our first born son. As the Dr. pulled him out we felt all of the emotions a new parent feels when they lay eyes on their child for the first time.

We couldn't imagine it getting any better. And then it did. The Dr. asked Brandi a couple of strange questions and then called me over to see him. It was a little scary at first when he pointed out many dark spots that covered Brandi's uterus and asked me if I knew what it was. Of course I didn't and he went on to explain to me that not only was it endometriosis, but it was what he called "stage 4+ endometriosis." I still wasn't quite sure what to make of it, though, and he went on to explain to me that endometriosis even at the lowest stages can cause many difficulties in getting pregnant.

But when someone has the higher stages (4+), it almost always means infertility.

I prayed hard against that C-Section, but little did I know that it was going to be God's way of showing us how big of a miracle Eli was!

Now almost two years later we have welcomed in our second miracle baby and we are in total amazement of God's grace and ability to overcome any obstacle. We are blown away by His love for us every time we look at our two boys.

Thanks for reading this and sharing in our miracle!

Cal, Brandi, Eli and Isaiah.