The Fruit of My Womb

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb… Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13,16 (TEB)

            My husband and I were in Jamaica on vacation, spending time talking with friends one evening when one of them, a medical doctor, began to stare at my neck.

            “Don’t you see that you have a goiter?” he said.

            “Goiter? What’s a goiter?” I asked. When he explained, I laughed. “I don’t have a goiter. My neck is just fat.”

            “No, you have a goiter,” he insisted. Before we left to return to our home in Michigan, our friend gave me some iodine pills and told me that if they didn’t solve the problem, I was to contact my primary physician for testing and additional medication.

            When the mass on my neck did not go away, I did consult my doctor. He ordered blood work, but before its results came back, he ordered for me to get radiation treatment at a hospital nearby. Following his instruction, I had the radiation treatment. And then the results of my blood work came back. I was pregnant.

            My physician immediately called for my husband and me to come into the office to see him. “We are going to have to terminate this pregnancy because we don’t know how much radiation you took in,” he told us.

            “I’m not ready,” I said, but I was shaken. I went home and prayed, “Lord, what should I do?” Immediately the Hail Mary I’d recited as a child came to mind.

            “Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.”

            “This child is the fruit of my womb,” I thought, “a gift from God. I can’t abort this child.”

            When I told my doctor of my decision, he said that if I did not take his medical advice and abort, I had to sign forms legally releasing him and the hospital from any liability.

            God’s answer to my prayer was clear and irrefutable. Despite my doctor’s repeated admonitions, I stood firm and carried my child to term. When our son was born, he was 100% healthy. He’s now thirty-six years of age, and he has been a tremendous blessing each and every one of them!  Diann Keeys