We are thankful for kidney stones... and infertility.

At the age of fifty, my Aunt Gigi acquired her first kidney stone. As is the case with most kidney stones, it was an unpleasant experience to say the least... but, she had never had one in fifty years and they don't seem all that uncommon now-a-days She considered herself lucky. She hoped to never have the experience again and figured it for a fluke.

In January of this year, she experienced more kidney stones! Nothing gains a person's attention like multiple kidney stones. She took medication for it, started drinking TONS of water, and even stopped drinking soda.

Then in April, she passed a 3 mm stone. Now not only was this expensive and very painful, but it was also starting to become pretty worrisome. So she saw a urologist, who sent her to an endocrinologist who did some tests and it turns out my aunt has a disease called Hashimoto's and she needed to have a parathyroidectomy (surgical removal of parathyroid glands).

To prepare for surgery, her doctor performed and ultrasound and found 2 nodules on her thyroid. The biopsy said that only one could be removed, but that it was benign. Fast forward to the operating room.... The doctor removed a parathyroid gland that was four times its normal size! They also removed the part of the thyroid that had the nodules on it because "There's no need to worry about the nodules if they're removed." It turns out that the nodule they wouldn't have been able to remove was CANCER.

Moral of the Story: If my aunt wouldn't have had kidney stones, she wouldn't have had surgery. If she hadn't had surgery, the cancer wouldn't have been caught at its earliest, least dangerous size!
My aunt is a strong Christian woman and said this about her experience:

"I believe in God! I believe that everything that happens in our lives prepares us for the next thing IF we are open and listening."

Now she has a beautiful scar on her neck that tells her story and reminds us all to trust God and his plan. I am so grateful for her example in my life.

The process of finding out that Spencer and I can't have children of our own has been the hardest thing I have ever been through. I don't think it hurt the same way a kidney stone hurts (I've never had one), but it hurt like nothing I've ever felt before. However, because I believe in an All-Knowing God who loves me perfectly, I know there's a reason for it. I know that God has a beautiful and perfect plan for our lives and someday I will understand all the details. As we have learned more about adoption, we have fallen more and more in love with the idea of growing our family through adoption. I feel so much peace.

We trust God. We are thankful for kidney stones. We are thankful for infertility.