This week we are looking at how God gives us strength when we surrender to Him. This birth testimony was written by a mama who knows that strength from God. Her birth story is a story of making beauty from ashes, which only God could write. The birth testimonies shared here at Surrender Birth may not all be neat and go as we planned, because that is life. But God, He takes our pains and trials and from them He shows His beauty and His glory. From Heather’s pain and story, God allowed them to just recently adopt 3 little kiddos from foster care. Thank you Heather for sharing God’s glory in your story.


 

The test barely showed I was pregnant, but I knew I was. We had only been married 5 months and many thought we were crazy to try and have a baby and both finish off school. However, we knew that God’s time was perfect and rested in the peace that every child is a blessing from him. I wouldn’t classify my pregnancy as easy or fun. It was full of stress, worry, and doctor’s appointments. However, it wasn’t a dangerous situation. As God walked us through each uncertainty, I found my trust in his perfect will growing. Looking back now I see how “immature” I was in my faith and trust of my heavenly Father.
On the day our child was born I walked into my weekly doctor’s appointment ready to be done, hoping my doctor would offer me an “out,” even though I was still a week before my due date. I was still very much at the beginning of my journey of trusting in God’s sovereign and ultimate plan for my life. Instead of my doctor offering me an “out”, God did it for me. My water broke while on the exam table.
Labor was intense, as I was given a good dose of Pitocin to start my contractions. Contractions were happening every 30 seconds to a minute and lasting just as long. I remember watching the monitor waiting for it to reach its max and taking a deep breath as the pain eased. My husband was the most amazing support. He never left my side, not once. He walked me through every contraction, helping me breathe the entire time. Eight hours later and with 25 minutes of pushing, our baby girl arrived.
She was incredible. I was blown away by how perfect she seemed. It was hard to take my eyes off her. And my husband; watching him gaze into her beautiful face, I never realized I could love him so much. We thought this was where our story of birth would end and our journey into parenting would begin, but it was only the beginning.

Heather Snyder
Addilece was born at 5:13 pm. Around 8 pm they were ready to move us out of our labor and delivery room and into a regular mother/baby room. Before I made that transition, I requested a trip to the bathroom. During this trip I noticed that I was bleeding pretty heavily. My nurse assured me this was normal and helped me change into a fresh pad. We moved to a new room, welcomed our first guest (a dear friend from church), and enjoyed my post-labor meal of choice (Monical’s Pizza). As time passed, we had both sets of grandparents and a few aunts/uncles come to see our sweet girl. Everybody kept commenting on how “good” I looked. I felt good, for a bit. Around 9:30 pm I requested another trip to use the restroom. Again, the nurse helped me change a very full pad and get cleaned up.
Things felt differently, though. I was quickly losing energy, my appetite had disappeared, and I just wanted to sleep. When I sat down on my hospital blood, I suddenly gushed blood everywhere. My pad was full, the bed pad was full, my energy completely drained. Over the next half hour we had several nurses and staff enter our room. My doctor came back to perform an ultrasound. What we found was a piece of placenta stuck in my uterus; my body would continue to try and expel it until it was gone. The decision to do a D&C was made, and by 10:15 I was being taken to surgery.
I went to sleep in surgery thinking that I would shortly be back with my darling girl and amazing husband, but while I was “out” other things were happening. The hemorrhaging wouldn’t stop. Try as my doctor might, she couldn’t remove the placenta, which left us with only one choice-a hysterectomy. My husband and our parents faced the very real possibility that they might lose me. When I woke up hours later, I had so much to deal with. I felt guilt over only being able to give my husband a girl. I had 24 hours in the ICU without my baby. I was tired and weak. We were 21 years old, being told we would never have another child biologically again.
As I said in the beginning, God was a beginning a journey of teaching me to trust. The moment I walked into the doctor’s office that morning I was impatient, wanting my own way. As God worked on our hearts and in our lives in those coming days, we learned a deep trust for our God. We felt a deep peace that he had us in his hands the entire time. We learned how to say, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. I will choose to say, ‘Lord blessed be your name.’” [tooltip text=”And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”](Job 1:21)[/tooltip]. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our surprises are not his surprises. Our ways are not his. He doesn’t guarantee we won’t go through hard times, just that he will walk us through them.
So much of what we learned in those days prepared us for a journey harder then we could ever imagine. Every fear and worry I had in those moments after reality hit has been taken care of. My husband has a beautiful relationship with his daughter, and it brought us to foster care and three beautiful children that just became forever ours. God continues to redeem our story for his glory and honor. It is not the story I would have written, and it’s been a rough road to walk. However, there is not one piece of it that was not used for God’s glory. We have learned to trust God’s will as so much better than our own. God’s power is truly greatest in our weakness (2 Cornithians 12:9).
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2 Responses

  1. What a hard and wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing. So many people in your situation would just despair and be angry, but God gave you the strength to turn that situation around and make it about helping other kids. Very inspiring.

  2. Very inspiring birth story. God definitely had a plan and did a work in your heart. Beautiful.

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