“He was only 19 and I was 20. He instantly had a crush on me (what can I say?), but it took me a little longer to look at him in a different way other than friends. We used to go to our church’s youth group every Friday, and he would always find a way to talk to me and make himself noticeable. He was definitely a great guy, I could easily see he loved God, he was very respectful, and I always loved his smile (still one of my favorite things about him). It wasn’t too long when I started noticing he would always give me a compliment on how beautiful I looked. He made me feel very special, and little by little we started talking more and more until he invited me for a coffee. We talked for three hours straight and from then on I started feeling something special for him. We officially started dating a couple of months after, and I fell completely in love with him. I can proudly say he was my first love and I was his. We dated for three years, and then we got married at a beautiful venue in Mexico in 2011.
We always dreamed of having a big family, but we had other plans at the beginning of our marriage, so we decided to wait on having children for a couple of years. Isaac and I have always been planners. We like to be organized in our priorities. That’s why we accomplished many dreams together such as: having the wedding of our dreams, buying a condominium, finishing school, traveling, etc. God was so good with us, we felt very blessed to be able to do all the things we wanted to do. It wasn’t until the end of 2015, when we started talking about having children, we began to face serious challenges. We felt it was the right timing, but we never thought about the journey ahead of us.
I’ve dealt with PCOS (ovarian cysts) since I was 16 years old and for that reason I have always taken medication to control it. I made an appointment to see my OBGYN to let her know I had stopped taking birth control pills. She ordered a series of lab tests to see my hormone levels and overall health. I had to wait a couple of months before taking any treatment because my hormone levels were a little off. Once my body was ready, she recommended to take an oral treatment to help my body ovulate and become pregnant. I took the treatment for three months and nothing happened. She told me she could not give me any other treatment and I would have to see a fertility doctor. It wasn’t easy to hear those news, but we knew God had great plans for us, we just had to trust him in the process.
It was already the end of 2016 when we finally visited a fertility center. We came across an excellent doctor, who ordered more thorough lab tests. He found other things I had no idea I had. Women who have been through this process can understand how I felt every time I heard more bad news. My only option was surgery to unblock my fallopian tubes. I couldn’t do the surgery right away because I couldn’t take time off from work, so we prayed for a couple of months believing for God’s will. The day of the surgery finally came, and there was more bad news. The doctor found endometriosis stage one and my fallopian tubes were damaged because of the blockage. He told me I needed to recover for a few months before trying IUI or IVF. He didn’t guarantee a successful pregnancy, but it was worth a try.
My body was ready to do the first IUI in August of 2016. We had our hopes very high and we couldn’t contain our excitement because after so long we were getting closer to become parents. We put all of our focus on the IUI, thinking it would finally happen for us. The results were negative – I was not pregnant. I felt awful. I had some very difficult days in which I really thought it was going to be almost impossible for me to get pregnant. Isaac was always very supportive, like the great husband he is. He had nothing but positive thoughts and he was the one who always encouraged me to keep believing our miracle was coming soon.
I decided to trust God like never before; my faith got really strong and I knew what he could do in our lives if we just believed in His promises. The second round of IUI happened in September 2017 and this time we were at peace knowing we were going to wait patiently. Just a couple of days after the second round of IUI, I started feeling weird. Women know their bodies and I didn’t want to confirm it, but I was almost sure I was pregnant. It took a lot of patience for me to wait to take a pregnancy test, but I finally bought one at the drugstore, and there it was, my positive. I didn’t know how to react. I had seen so many negative pregnancy tests in the past it was almost impossible for me to see the positive in this one. I surprised Isaac later that day, and we thanked the Lord together.
A few weeks passed, and it was time for the first ultrasound. He couldn’t go with me because he was at work. I went to my doctor’s appointment to find out I was pregnant with twins! I was beyond excited when the doctor told me I was expecting twins. I left the doctor’s office and I called Isaac. He was super excited too! Another couple of weeks went by and I had the second ultrasound, this time Isaac went with me. As soon as the doctor is doing the ultrasound he sees not only two sacs, but three with a possible fourth one. He says, ‘Triplets, you are having triplets!’ And then he says, ‘The fourth sac will probably vanish since I didn’t hear a heartbeat.’ We didn’t know what to say, but we left happy.
Finally, the third ultrasound, he hears four strong heartbeats and says, ‘It’s confirmed, you are having quadruplets.’ This time we just stayed quiet, the nurse told Isaac if he wanted to sit down because he looked like he was going to faint. The doctor was not very encouraging this time since he had to tell us all the odds of having a pregnancy of quadruplets. I didn’t know what to say or think. We left the doctor’s office a little sad and happy at the same time, but we were very confused. Later, we decided to pray and trust God’s plans for our lives. He had given us this pregnancy, and He knew what was best for us. We decided to look for another doctor and we found the best ones. I felt so relieved and I decided to enjoy my pregnancy and believing the best was to come.
My pregnancy was a dream! I always felt so good, I think I had just a couple of headaches, some heartburn, and I threw up a couple of times. My pregnancy went so smoothly – I had no hospital visits, no bleeding, no bedrest (bedrest is super common in multiple pregnancies) no gestational diabetes – NOTHING! I enjoyed being pregnant so much with my four miracles (I did gain a lot of weight towards the end, which was not fun, but it was so worth it because my babies were born with really amazing weights). Week by week I received only good news about how well my babies and I were doing. Feeling all four kicking inside me was one of the best experiences ever (sometimes a little painful haha). My goal was always to deliver the quads by C-section during week 34. I made it perfectly fine to that week and the quads were born in June 2018.
The day of my C-section I was nervous, but excited to finally see their little faces. People scared me about the operating room, the anesthesia, etc. But I didn’t care about anything other than meeting my babies. I was surprised the quads were born in less than 30 minutes with no complications (just my blood pressure went up, but they were able to control it within a few minutes. That was actually not fun, I had a massive headache). After that, I got to visit my babies in the NICU.
Doctors were amazed about their weights and that there was no need for oxygen or really anything, they stayed in the NICU for a week and then we got to take them home, which is rare in quadruplets. It has only been a couple of weeks with them at home, and we already can’t imagine our lives without them. Each of them is so special to us, we now understand why we had to wait to receive our miracles. We feel so blessed to have been chosen to be parents of multiples because God definitely saw something in us to be able to raise four beautiful children all at once. We haven’t slept much, but no one can take our joy of being parents to our four children. We cannot wait to see what’s ahead of us. We know there is going to be lots of fun raising quads. We wish to bring hope to other couples struggling with infertility because we know exactly how it feels. We believe in a God of miracles, who has a perfect timing for everyone.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Marcela Morales, 29, of San Diego, California. You can follow their families journey on Facebook here and Instagram here. Do you have a similar experience? We’d like to hear your important journey. Submit your own story here. Be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
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