“In The Arms Of An Angel”
The Lopez family and their little miracle, Thomas; Farmington, MN

My story begins in the spring of 2000. I was previously married and we faced infertility, and after many months of trying and being on fertility meds, I had a laparoscopy done and found out that my fallopian tubes were severely damaged, my doctor gave me about 1 in a million chance of concerning on my own, but that was only half of our troubles, through all of this I discovered that my husband was an alcoholic, therefore causing another obstacle for us. We decided to give it one more shot and we tried artificial insemination, and as I lay on the table after the procedure, I found myself praying for it not to work, for I knew it was not meant to be, we were not meant to be, so I got up and walked out. A couple of weeks later, I found out it did not work. We divorced shortly after a year of marriage, I got the marriage annulled & moved on.

I ended up meeting the man of my dreams, my soul mate and this is how I knew. We got engaged in September of 2002, it all kind of happened really fast, even though I knew he was “the one” people questioned how soon it was, so I ended up scared & unsure, and even though we were still together, I put the engagement on hold. After a few weeks passed, I felt more certain of myself & us, but I was looking for some insight, to help me be 100% sure & I got it. I went in for my annual exam on December 6th, and answered the usual questions, came to “when was your last period?” and I answered the best I could…”oh I think sometime in October?” I had no clue, was not counting, and was not using any birth control, for I had no need for that! Then the nurse said “well you seem to be late, could you be pregnant?” I said “know way, look at my records, it’s almost impossible” she said “I know, but I must run a test” so a few minutes passed and she came back and said “it’s positive, you are pregnant!” I just about fell over, I was so happy? Then they had me meet with the nurse practitioner & she told me not to get my hopes up yet, for with my history, it could be an ectopic pregnancy. So right away they got me in for an ultrasound, and found out that I was a little over 6 weeks along and the fetus was in my uterus and everything looked perfect, we were going to have a BABY! And that’s the moment I knew I had made the right choice, I put the ring back on, I walked down the aisle in May…happily 6 months pregnant & we delivered a perfectly health baby boy on August 1, 2003!

So fast forward a bit to shortly after our son’s 1st birthday, we decided to try for a second child. So after on three months of trying, we had a positive pregnancy test in March of 2005, I called my Dr. right away and they scheduled my first ultrasound; but about a week later I started to have some bleeding & went in to my doctor, who confirmed I had an ectopic pregnancy and we scheduled a D & C for the following week to terminate it, by far one of my saddest days of our lives.

I had a follow-up laparoscopy and we found out one of my fallopian tubes was partially blocked and the other side was completely blocked, my doctor suggested we do invitro fertilization, but we were not ready for that yet and decided to try for a few months more.

Well the months passed with no success, so I went to my doctor and asked him for a referral for a IVF clinic and we decided to give it a shot. We went to RMIA – Reproductive Medicine and Infertility Associates in December 2005, and started the invitro process.

I used Bravelle and Menopur during my IVF cycle & the retrieval took place on March 4th 2006, out of the three oocytes retrieved, two were of high quality and were transferred into my uterus on March 7th 2006. I was put on “bed rest” for 2 days following the procedure and during that time my grandmother had become very ill and gone into the hospital. She had no idea what I was going through, since she was suffering from Dimentia, we felt it would be too hard for her to comprehend. I felt so bad that I could not go visit her; my family would call with reports on her condition, it was worsening, she had been unresponsive for days, so I knew she didn’t have long. I got to go see her at the hospital for the first time on March 11th, she was breathing very heavily, not waking at all; my family and I gathered around her, praying and crying. Then for a second she opened her eyes for the first time in days and out of everyone in the room she seemed to look directly at me and then back down and she passed away. I knew at that very moment she had left this life in order to give me life. Yet way too early for a pregnancy test, I knew in my heart I was pregnant for sure.

My grandmother’s funeral was scheduled for March 16th, and I was to go in for my first pregnancy test at R.M.I.A. on the March 17th, but not to find out results until my second test on March 20th. But the morning of my grandmother’s funeral, I decided to take a home test, I just had to see if it was true, if my grandmother’s angel was upon us. So on that sad day of saying goodbye to my dear grandmother, she let us find some joy, for there was a faint line on my pregnancy test and I knew it was so. And sure enough, my doctors confirmed it on the 20th, I was indeed PREGNANT!!!

After a wonderful pregnancy & finding out it was to be a boy, he came into this world on November 20th, and as the doctors performed my C-section, the moment he was being delivered, on the radio in the operating room the song “In the Arms of an Angel” came on, and as we said hello to Thomas Jack Lopez, I couldn’t help but feel my grandmothers presence. Three days later we were able to come home & celebrate Thanksgiving with our whole family, & I have never been so thankful in my life!