Abby here, guest posting. =) I know this is the NaPro HUSBAND's blog, but what's a husband without his wife butting in every now and then? =P
Anyway, I just wanted to share about what I learned from my most recent hiking adventure and how that hike was very similar to our journey through infertility.
This past Saturday, Mark and I (and three other friends) hiked to the top of Mt. Wilson. A personal accomplishment, to say the least, but that 14+ mile trek kicked…my…butt.
There was one point while we were hiking down the mountain when I wanted to give up. I was over it. Everything down to my toes ached and I just wanted to sit there and cry and sulk.
But then I thought, ‘What good is quitting going to do for you, Abby? You HAVE to keep going, or else you're just going to be stuck on the mountain. Like, really, STUCK there. They'd have to call a helicopter to bring you down. And you're not a lame-o. There's no use in crying. You have to finish what you were set out to do.'
It wasn't until the day after that I realized God was speaking to me right then and there.
You see, this past week had been pretty rough. Particularly because I knew Mother's Day was coming up and it would be another one that I didn't have someone going through the stash of cards in my office, wondering which one they should give me. The whole week, I was feeling sorry for myself - crying...sulking...feeling the same way I felt when I was on the mountain. But instead of my toes, it was my heart that ached. I was over it…over the charting, over the nightly dose of medication, over the constant questioning of ‘when is it going to happen? Or will it ever happen?'
But at mass on Sunday, I thought about the mountain and how there was no use in me crying then and there was no use in me crying now. I have to finish what I was set out to do. I have to finish what God set me out to do – to remain hopeful and joyful in times of confusion, anxiety, and worry. And to ‘continually praise God' just as the disciples did when they were anxiously awaiting the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49-53) .
So that's my mission. Well, our mission. To share that there is joy and hope in NaPro Technology and Natural Family Planning. I wasn't meant to take the helicopter down...nor was I meant to do In Vitro Fertilization or anything else that compromised what I believed in. I was meant for this. And though this adventure may seem as never ending as those gruesome switchbacks on Mt. Wilson, there will always be something wonderful waiting for me at the top.
At Mt. Wilson, it was a chili dog from the Cosmic Café. =P
For the rest of my life, it's heaven with my hubby.
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us." - Romans 8:18