HerBig Family Adventures

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success

When Kyra became pregnant with our first child, she quickly fell ill, and became caught in a cycle of vomiting and uncontrollable nausea that has lasted long after giving birth.

Morning sickness. We’ve all heard of it. We thought it would pass in the first 3-4 months.

It didn’t…

It got worse.

Much worse.

Hyperemesis gravidarum (we hadn’t heard of it before) is extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

Very extreme.

Very persistent.

Very draining.

I have huge empathy for someone with a tummy bug, that feels nausea and needs to puke a couple of times in a day, for perhaps a few days at a time.

Kyra was puking 20 – 30 times per day (day and night).

For months on end.

Without a break.

Without a pause.

Without a moment to collect herself.

I watched helplessly as my warm, loving and energetic wife (married for 3 months then) was slowly drained of anything except the bare basics of survival.

The medications helped a bit. They let Kyra work through small functional moments, but never setting her free of the nausea knocking at her door.

The woman’s doctor had no ideas, except sending us to the specialists.

The specialists had no ideas, except sending Kyra to the hospital.

The hospital had no new ideas except to keep Kyra hydrated and alive with an IV and to suggest trying experimental drugs that weren’t tested to be safe for pregnancy.

It was also still Corona High season, and I wasn’t practically able or allowed to visit her in the hospital.

I Must say, that I was unimpressed with the hand that God had dealt me. He had set me up with my dream wife, in a new country and culture, then let her get uncontrollably sick – leaving me alone without the support that I desperately needed. I was also working a cleaning Job at a supermarket that required me to stand up at 04:30am everyday, and leave Kyra alone. I wasn’t particularly happy about my situation…

It’s only now, years later that I can start to appreciate the huge plan that God was working for me and us.

He never left us, never forsook us, and never took His eyes off us for a moment. His heart ached with ours, and his love flowed more abundantly than we could ever have grasped at the time.

We both came out of that place, stronger and more faith filled than before.

God works miracles in the deepest and darkest despair.

He thinks that YOU are to die for.

What setback or hurdle has grown you into a better, more faith filled version of yourself?