When I was pregnant with my first child, Dawson, I was really sick. Not your average run-of-the-mill- pregnancy sick, but throw-up-literally-every-5-minutes-of-every-hour-of-everyday-for-the-first-16-weeks kind of sick. I had to be hospitalized multiple times. I had to wear a backpack full of milkshake-fluid that fed me through a tube that was attached to my heart through a PIC line. The only relief I got from throwing up was by taking a chemotherapy drug, but that didn’t start working until after my 16th week.
As if the pregnancy wasn’t bad enough, the delivery was awful too. Dawson came out blue, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his head. I had third degree lacerations. They thought Dawson had a heart condition (which he didn’t) and kept him in NICU for several days. Once we finally got home I started getting terribly sick and was readmitted to the hospital. After almost dying, they realized they left part of the placenta inside me. Oops…
When the decision came to have another child we were warned that it would just as bad, if not worse. They weren’t kidding.
The puking started, the PIC line was inserted, hospitalizations occurred, etc. If I thought I was miserable with Dawson, I was twice as miserable with Marissa. The vomiting was twice as bad and to top it off I got a yeast infection in my PIC line, which caused me to be re-hospitalized and for the rest of my pregnancy I had to see an Infectious Disease Control doctor every week. Good times…
Even the delivery was worse than Dawson’s; I had one push to get Marissa out or she literally would have died. At least I didn’t have any lacerations!
When I share this story with people they always say something like, “WHY did you have another child? You knew it was going to be horrible. You are insane!” Honestly it wasn’t really much of a decision for us. We knew we wanted to have another child; we knew the pros and cons and made the choice to endure the horrible times because the amazing times would far outweigh them. And I’m so glad that we made that decision because I can’t imagine my life without Marissa. Was it worth the pain? Of course!
Deciding to plant a church is a lot like deciding to have a baby. It’s a major decision with plenty of pros and cons. When we planted Forefront it was pretty much a no-brainer. We thought, “Of course we will start a new church!” Much like my first pregnancy, we didn’t know what was in store for us. It was incredibly difficult. Sometimes I felt like throwing up every 5 minutes! It was stressful, exhausting and depressing at times. But it’s also one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. Was it worth the pain? Of course!
When we started feeling like God was telling us to start another church it wasn’t such an easy decision. We knew that it would be just as bad, if not worse, especially given the fact that it would happen in Sin City. We thought, “Do we really want to start a new church again?” But, like with my second pregnancy, we knew what we were in store for and made the decision to go ahead anyway. We made the choice to endure the horrible times because the amazing times would far outweigh them. I’m going to be perfectly honest with you…it’s been really difficult this time around. But, do you think it will it be worth the pain? Of course! (I hope)!
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