Life as LawWife

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is introduced to us along with her husband in Luke 1. We learn that they are both of Levite lineage (he's a priest and she's a descendant of Aaron's), and we get this tidbit:

And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

While Zechariah is serving in the temple, God sends an angel to make him this promise:

Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

Zechariah expresses doubt about this promise, saying that both he and Elizabeth are old, and the angel strikes him with the inability to speak until after the promise is fulfilled.

Luke then relates what happens next, after Zechariah returns home:

After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, "Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."

A pregnant Elizabeth reappears on the scene after Mary has conceived Jesus. Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and an amazing thing happens:

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

Our pastor said that this incident was most likely John the Baptist's regeneration. God is in control both before and after birth, even to the point of salvation before birth! Elizabeth was also given the gift of prophecy, shown in what she said about her Lord and by the fact that she was "filled with the Holy Spirit."

Shortly after Mary left (after a three-month stay), Elizabeth gave birth:

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, "No; he shall be called John." And they said to her, "None of your relatives is called by this name." And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him.

What continues to strike me is how when God in Scripture opens a woman's womb, He does amazing things through the offspring. This is no exception. John the Baptist was nothing less than the forerunner of the Messiah Himself, and he preached about God's kingdom to His chosen people.

I pray if ever the Lord opens my womb, He will have something amazing for my child as well. 

I typed this up for the Ovusoft forum's Endo FAQ, so I thought I'd put a copy here. There's lots of TMI here, so be warned. :)

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I had my only lap (so far) in December of 2006, and the surgery included a hysteroscopy. The doctor Rxed Cytotec for me to use vaginally the night before; it's an ulcer med, I believe, but it also dilates the cervix. So I took that and had spotting leading up to surgery, including cramping. I honestly thought my period was starting. No one seemed to care, and afterwards I realized it was just from the dilation. I also had to do HalfLytely as bowel prep. Disgusting, but at least it wasn't as much as the GoLytely or NuLytely. I ended up going all night long and even some the next day, though how there was anything left is BEYOND me.

I got to the hospital on time and removed my contacts. My mom was with me and she didn't know how to get there, so I had to drive. I got checked in and received a pad for the spotting (whew!). Then I got hooked up with the whole IV thing and some glucose (is that what it is?).

The pastor of the church we were attending at the time came by to pray with and for me, and that helped, but time seemed to CRAWL until I went down for surgery. Once I was there, the anesthesiologist came for me to sign the release for him to give me the good stuff. I couldn't see w/out my glasses (and I had forgotten to read it the night before), so I had to really squint and work hard to see it so I could sign it. Then I found out the doctor was running late (doing a transfer or IUI in his office, I believe). The nurse was so sweet, and since I was cramping & nervous, she asked the anesthesiologist to give me something to relax me. Wheee! :)

Once the doctor came, they wheeled me into the OR. I scootched myself over onto the operating table, and they strapped my arms out to the side. Not sure why, unless women under anesthesia tend to swat at people messing with their privates. Just as I did the only other time I've been under general anesthesia (when my wisdom teeth were removed), I went out very quickly after the meds started through the IV.

When I woke up in recovery, I was incredibly thirsty. The nurse would give me ice chips, but then she got busy. A different nurse gave me the cup so I could spoon them up myself. I've never been that thirsty! I assume it was from the breathing tube. I was in recovery for probably 10 minutes before being taken back to the room.

The day before, the nurse going through the check-in process had told me I needed to drink clear liquid, pee, and be able to stand before I'd be able to go home. So I made those my priorities. Of course I was willing to drink, as I was so thirsty, and I managed to squeeze out some drops of urine. I ached in my neck (I was expecting shoulder pain), but it was from the gas used for the lap. The nurse brought me drugs for that, and then I felt ok. My mom signed the necessary forms, and then we left.

I didn't really experience a lot of pain that day except for an excruciating need to pee. I was drinking so much b/c of thirst, but I wasn't really able to pee effectively. Finally, that evening, I was able to get a normal flow of urine. That was honestly the worst part. The doc gave me generic Demerol that has an anti-nausea component (prometh); I took it faithfully every four hours, and I didn't feel much pain or any nausea. I also took some Gas-X, and the gas discomfort was gone within a few hours.

When I went back in the next day for follow-up (he was leaving town for the rest of the month!), he told me he'd found Stage I endo, a wide septum, and uterine polyps. He'd lasered the endo, resectioned my uterus, and removed the polyps. He also drilled my polycystic ovaries.

It took me two weeks to recover to about 95%. By the end of those two weeks, I was starting to have trouble sleeping b/c of lack of exercise. My surgery was Dec. 1, and by Christmas I was 100% again. 

The last of my stitches (in my belly button) were gone by Sunday, January 21.

(Edited 1/25/07 to remove Ovusoft smileys and to add the stitches info.)

But good grief...nearly everyone I know is pregnant! Seriously!!! On my IF board, two gals just announced pregnancies (one last week and one today); two IRL friends told me they're pregnant (within the past week); all of my friends in a particular buddy group are pregnant or just had a baby; and there's a rash of pg announcements on a board I can't visit again until I'm pregnant myself. This is really too much to bear sometimes.

Hannah

Hannah is introduced to us in 1 Samuel 1, where we learn that she is one of two wives of Elkanah. Like in the story of Rachel, the "other wife" (Peninnah) is fertile while Hannah is not. Elkanah obviously loves Hannah, as he is especially gracious to her b/c she has no children. Peninnah, on the other hand, is a constant source of grief:

Elkanah begs Hannah not to weep and to resume eating, saying, "Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" (Isn't that sweet?)

While the whole clan is in Shiloh for worship and sacrifice, Hannah goes to the Temple to pray.

She is essentially saying to God, "Look, I want a child so much that if You will just give one to me, I will give him straight back to You!" She also made a vow that her child would be Nazarite.

Eli, the priest, sees Hannah praying, but he assumes she is drunk because her lips are moving while no words or sounds are coming. Hannah responds,

Eli comforts her by saying that God will grant her request, and she goes on her way and resumes normal life (including eating). Here's how God answers her prayer:

Samuel means "heard of God." (I really love how Biblical names have meaning and not just pretty sounds, kwim?)

Over the next couple of years (the text isn't clear about how long she nurses Samuel, but given the culture, it was probably a couple of years at least), Hannah does not accompany the rest of the clan to Shiloh for worship and sacrifice. She remains at home with her son, nursing him and treasuring her time with him. However, when he is weaned,

Hannah dioes not forget her promise to God, that she would return to Him her most treasured possession. God had given Samuel to her, and she gave him back to the hands that had formed him.

Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving is found in 1 Samuel 2. Here are portions:

There is none holy like the LORD;

Each year when the family goes up to Shiloh for sacrifices, Hannah brings along a new robe for him. I really love that picture of maternal providing. Even though she has returned him to his Maker, Hannah still holds Samuel in her heart and provides him with something tangible from her, the work of her own hands.

Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the young man Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.

What do we learn from Hannah? First, God answers prayers. He may not always give us the answer we're looking for, but He does respond. Second, God takes our vows very seriously, and so should we. If we make a promise to God, we should keep it, even at great cost to ourselves. Third, don't underestimate God's generosity. :) Hannah was incredibly blessed...her first son was a valuable part of the worship in Shiloh (and became an amazing leader for Israel), and then God gave her five more children of her own. As the old saying goes, "You can't outgive God!"

Rachel

We first meet Rachel in Genesis 29, learning that she is a shepherdess.

Laban has two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel is "beautiful in form and appearance," according to verse 17. Jacob falls for the beautiful sister, and he serves Laban for seven years in order to marry her. Unfortunately, Laban tricks him into marrying Leah, saying it is the custom in their land for the older daughter to marry first. Jacob has to live as Leah's husband for one week and then agree to serve Laban for seven more years in order to marry Rachel.

Rachel gets the love of her husband, but...

Rachel has to deal not only with her own infertility but with her rival's almost hyperfertility. In verses 32-35, Leah gives birth to four sons (Reuben, which means "See, a son"; Simeon, which means "heard"; Levi, which means "attached"; and Judah, which means "praise). Leah is rubbing her blessings in the face of her aching sister.

Rachel experiences envy, and in chapter 30, she makes a demand of her husband:

Jacob, knowing well the sovereignty of God, responds angrily (probably not the best way to answer!),

As a compromise, Rachel gives Jacob her maid to sleep with. Bilhah gives birth to two sons in Rachel's stead (Dan, which means "judged," and Naphtali, which means "wrestling"; both of these names are also used in this game of one-upmanship between the sisters).

Leah then, because she seems to be experiencing a sort of secondary infertility (!), gives Jacob her servant to have more children with. The products of Jacob's times with Zilpah are Gad ("good fortune") and Asher ("happy").

[Rachel, like Sarah, took her own route to conception rather than just trusting in God's will. Bringing in the servants as concubines probably wasn't the wisest course of action, as it spread Jacob even thinner, if you will.]

We then read that Rachel asks Leah for some mandrakes Reuben had brought in from the field. Leah, still burning with jealousy that Jacob loves Rachel more, demands that she be allowed to sleep once more with Jacob. Obviously, it's more than once, as Leah then gives birth to Issachar ("wages") and Zebulun ("honor") and a daughter Dinah ("God has judged").

Leah believes (and her culture agrees) that because she has given her husband more children, she has been judged more favorably than her sister. Score: Leah 8 sons & 1 daughter (incl. with the servant), Rachel 2 sons (only from the servant)

Finally, finally, finally!!

(The name Joseph is sort of a pun, as it means "may He add" and sounds like "taken away.")

Some time later, Rachel again conceives a son. However, this time it doesn't end well.

The later mentions of Rachel in Scripture speak of her lamenting for her children, refusing to be comforted. I find it really striking that her desire for children was appeased (by Joseph and later Benjamin, whom she did not get to enjoy) but she was not truly comforted as her descendents were later captured and in some cases killed.

My study Bible points out that Rachel was attempting to earn something she already had: undying love from Jacob. It didn't matter to him whether she gave him sons; he loved her completely. It didn't matter to him how many sons Leah gave him; he couldn't ever love her. The bio on Rachel draws a parallel between this and God's love for us. There's nothing we can do to earn it; He loves us unconditionally. All we have to do is accept it.

Rebekah

We first meet Rebekah in Genesis 24. Abraham has gotten pretty old (seeing as he was 100 when Isaac was born, this is not surprising!), and he wants a good wife for his son. Abraham sends his servant to Nahor so that he can find a woman from Abraham's family.

When the servant arrived, he prayed that God would give him a sign: that a woman would come to the well and offer water for both him and his camels. "By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master" (Gen. 24:14c). Rebekah was the woman who came, and she did indeed offer water for both the servant and his camels. She didn't just give them some water; she watered the camels until they were no longer thirsty.

Though she had never met Abraham (as far as I can tell from Scripture), she was willing to leave the next day with Abraham's servant. As she left the only home she'd ever known, her brother and mother gave her this blessing:

Chapter 24 closes with this:

We learn in chapter 25 that Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah and that she was barren. She dealt with this issue for 20 years (v 26d). What fixed it?

She conceives twin sons, and the LORD tells her that she has two nations within her womb, two nations that would fight with each other. And we learn that each parent had a favorite: Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah preferred Jacob. I really wonder how much of that was just how it would have been and how much of Rebekah's preference was based on what God had revealed to her:

At the end of chapter 26, we find that Esau has married two Hittite women and they are making life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. (See, it's not always the MILs who are evil!) She laments at the end of chapter 27:

In chapter 27, Rebekah conspires with Jacob to get the blessing Isaac intends for Esau. My study Bible says that one of her biggest failings is her willingness to do things outside the correct order to reach the result she'd already been promised. In this case, the LORD Himself promised her that the older son would serve the younger son, but she had to take matters into her own hands to assure herself that it was really going to happen. (Shades of Sarah here, as when Sarah told Abraham to sleep with Hagar to make God's promise true.) It wasn't her ambition or even her get-'er-done attitude that was wrong; it was stepping outside God's promise to fulfill God's promise, as though He wouldn't or couldn't do it Himself.

Interestingly enough, we don't hear about Rebekah's death. We know she died (Gen. 49:31), but we don't know anything else about it. Her last mention in Scripture is in Romans 9, and that mention is just because she is the mother of Jacob & Esau.

Sarah

Sarai is introduced in Genesis 11:30, and look at how she's defined:

Her story begins in Genesis 12, when we see her and her husband (at that point, his name was Abram) going down to Egypt because of a famine in their homeland. Abram was afraid Pharaoh would want to kill him in order to take Sarai for his own wife, so they pretended that Sarai was Abram's sister (a half-truth, as they were indeed half siblings). God somehow communicated to Pharaoh the full truth, and he sent them on their way.

Here's something my pastor pointed out to us earlier this year: Although at this point Sarai is in her late 60s or early 70s, she's still so beautiful and "preserved" (for lack of a better term) that Abram rightly fears the Egyptian king's interest in her. Sarai doesn't just look good, she still looks young and desirable. That's a miracle in itself! ;o)

In Genesis 15, God covenants with Abram that He will make a great nation from his seed. In chapter 16, we see that Sarai takes that covenant into her own hands, so to speak, by having her husband sleep with her servant Hagar. (At this point, Abram is 86 yrs old, and Sarai is about 10 yrs younger.) Of course, once Hagar conceived, Sarai was filled with contempt for her and treated her quite badly.

In chapter 17, God comes down again to Abram, making it clear this time that He intends to make a nation with both him and Sarai. He institutes the covenant sign of circumcision and changes their names to Abraham and Sarah. He even tells them when their child, a son, would be born (that same time the following year) and what his name would be. The name for their son was to be Isaac, which means "he laughs" or "laughter."

In chapter 18, when Sarah hears this prophecy, she literally LOL. Here are verses 10-14:

We see here that she has definitely gone through menopause ("The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah."), but the LORD Himself says, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?"

Genesis 20 relates that Abraham was up to his old tricks again, telling Abimelech that Sarah was his sister. Because Abimelech had taken another man's wife, God actually inflicted infertility on Abimelech's wife and female servants until Sarah was safely returned to Abraham.

The payoff comes in Genesis 21:

The last mention we have of Sarah comes from the "Hall of Faith" chapter, Hebrews 11:

I started a series about IF in the Bible in a forum I'm part of, but I'm going to copy it all over and finish it here. I'd like to keep it somehow where I can find it w/out trouble.

We went to the doc yesterday for what I thought was a six-week checkup (since surgery was about six weeks ago). No, he wanted to talk about what treatments we were going to pursue. Would've been nice to know that ahead of time!!!

Anyway, injectables (GnRH, FSH, and LH delivered via injection) are quite expensive, not just the drugs themselves but also the monitoring that goes along with them. The doc would Rx the appropriate hormones, Dan or I would inject them into me, and we'd be followed by ultrasound (at $300 a pop, I believe). The drug doses are tweaked based upon response, so that's why ultrasounds are necessary. Since we have only one car and Dan travels all the dang time for work, it's hard to get all that figured out. 

After a little more discussion, the doctor agreed to put me on 50mg Clomid for a few cycles to see if that will help. I took 25mg in 2005, but that didn't seem to do anything. We're definitely praying that God will do a miraculous work this time and make something happen.

If after four cycles (somewhere around May or June, I imagine) I'm not pregnant, we'll start talking about injectables again. We hope to have some money saved up by then to help out with that. We're so tired of trying and not succeeding!

So the nice lady (Melany) brought lunch from a local pizza place (antipasto salad--YUM!) and we chatted. I don't really know how to describe our conversation, but it was nice to be with someone who understood. She talked about the feelings of hopelessness and fear. They did eventually conceive (after about three years of trying, it seems) their first son, and two sons followed after him. I got the impression that they didn't have too much trouble conceiving after the first child.

Anyway, since we left that church, I guess that'll probably be my last true contact with her. She's a very sweet lady, though, and she completely understood why we were looking for another church.