I Thought I Would Never Conceive a Child

by Diana Olsson

I met my husband, Oscar, when I was 16 years old. He was 18 and we were both in high school in Fiji at the time. Eight years later we married and moved to Brisbane, Australia. Life was great. We were young, in love, and loved to travel the world together. Then, when I turned 30 years old, we decided to start a family.

I stopped taking birth control pills and we actively tried to get pregnant. I thought it would happen right away and it didn't. Year after year passed and still no baby. We went to see numerous doctors who told us that it wasn’t a medical problem as everything seemed to be fine. After four years of trying to conceive, my husband asked me to consider in vitro fertilization but I held onto the hope of having a baby naturally. Deep down, I knew that God had promised us a child but I just didn’t know how much longer we would have to wait for it to happen. Slowly, as the years went by, doubt crept in and soon I stopped believing that I would conceive a child naturally.

Then in 2016, after living in Sydney for a year, Oscar moved back to Brisbane, while I stayed in Sydney to work and look for a job in Brisbane. I suddenly found myself on my own for the first time since I was 16. During this season, I would scream and cry out to God about my life, my marriage and my inability to conceive. I realized that He had taken away all of the distractions in my life so that He could speak to me. He spoke to me about putting him first in my life. Over the years, my husband and my marriage became my priority and I had stopped believing God for my own dreams. I spent the next few months learning to dream again and believe God for the dreams that he had given me years before.

I also attended COLOUR, Hillsong’s annual women’s conference, while I was in Sydney. Even though I had attended the conference for many years, this year I noticed a difference. There was a special focus on the birthing process and the leaders prayed for women to conceive – physically and spiritually.

By the time I rejoined my husband in Brisbane after six months apart, I had surrendered my plan to God’s plan and timing.  Then, five months later, the unexpected happened.

My period was late that month but that had happened before so I waited until I was more than a week late to take a home pregnancy test. I was shocked when the result was positive. I woke my husband up and told him that the test was positive but, even then, we were both still cautious. We didn’t want to get our hopes up until we saw a doctor. Even when the doctor confirmed that I was pregnant, I was still fearful that my pregnancy would be short-lived. We've had so many friends who've had miscarriage after miscarriage, so it was hard to believe at first. It finally hit home when I had my first appointment with the obstetrician and I could hear the baby’s heartbeat. We waited until I was three months pregnant to tell our family and friends and they were as excited as we were at the good news.

So after 20 years of being together, 12 years of marriage, and six years of trying to conceive, our miracle baby is almost here.  While preparing to give birth, I've realized that I am not the same person that I was a year ago. In taking the time to be alone with God, I've learned so much about His character. What I’ve learned is that it was much easier to have faith in someone's miracle than my own because it's not easy to trust God when it seems like He's taking too long.  If you're waiting for your own miracle, learn to put Him first and make time to hear from Him. He is faithful and his mercies are new every morning. Also, surround yourself with prayer warriors who will pray for you. And whatever you do, never give up hope because God’s timing is always perfect.