pieces | ethma

it's all in God's timing

Emma

Another day, another negative pregnancy test.

Ethan and I have been married for three years, and trying for a baby for almost a whole year now. No luck.

Ethan always tries his best to be encouraging, telling me it'll happen when it's supposed to, but I'm starting to think it's not possible.

Ethan knocked on the door as I stood in the bathroom, looking down at the negative test.

"Emma, are you okay, babe?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'll be out in a minute."

"I love you," he called.

"I love you too."

A minute later, I opened the bathroom door, and Ethan was waiting for me. "Come here," he said, opening his arms.

I wrapped my arms around Ethan's stomach, leaning my head on his chest as he pulled me close.

"It's gonna be okay, babe," he said. "I promise."

"It's been almost a year, Ethan."

"I know, baby. Come on, let's lay down. Okay?"

I nodded as Ethan pulled me towards the bed. Even though it was the middle of the day, he knew I needed to get some rest.

As we climbed under the covers, Ethan pulled me into his arms, and kissed me on the cheek.

"There's so many options, babe," he said. "We could adopt, or get a surrogate, or try fertility treatments. We could try for a little bit longer before we do anything else. I know it's gonna happen, Emma."

His hand landed on the small of my back, and his thumb slipped under my shirt, rubbing circles on my skin.

"It's just hard to see so many negative tests."

"Hey, it's okay," Ethan said, softly kissing me on the cheek again. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," I said. He smiled and pecked me on the lips.

"We don't have to go to family dinner tonight if you don't want to."

"No, we're still gonna go. I was just hoping we'd actually have news to share."

Ethan tightened his hold on me as he buried his nose into my neck. "Emma, baby. It's okay. It'll happen. I know it will. But I just want you to know how much I love you, and how amazing of a wife you are. It'll be three and a half years soon, and it's been the best three and a half years of my life. I love you so much, and I'm right here with you through all of this, okay? We're gonna get through it."

"I love you so much," I whispered. Ethan pecked me on the lips again.

"I love you so much."

-

Ethan and I arrived at his parent's house later that evening for our weekly family dinner.

Grayson, his wife Alayna and their daughter Lauren along with Cameron and her boyfriend Josh were all there, plus Ethan's parents and us.

Grayson and Alayna were really the only people who knew Ethan and I were having a lot of trouble with conceiving, and the advice they gave us would change everything.

"You guys are stressing too much. You need to relax a little," Grayson said.

"Yeah," said Alayna. "I think you guys need to get really drunk one night, and then it'll happen."

Ethan smiled at me, putting his hand on my thigh as he winked. "Looks like I'm getting you drunk tonight, Emma."

"Ethan, you have to get drunk too. You both have to be relaxed for it to work," Grayson said.

And they were right.

After we left Sean and Lisa's house, Ethan and I stopped by the store to pick up a bottle of wine.

We curled up on the couch, and between the two of us we drank the whole bottle. Plus half of another bottle we already had at home.

I never thought that wine would be the trick to conceiving a baby.

Sure enough, two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.

Ethan said he needed to listen to his brother's advice more often from then on.

It took us almost a whole year, but I was finally pregnant, and Ethan already started growing out his dad beard.

I told him to wait to grow it until I was further along in the pregnancy.

After that, we found out we were having a little girl when I was 12 weeks along, and we decided to name her Jessie.

Ethan was right about it happening when it was supposed to, because my pregnancy was an amazing experience, and I don't think it could've been at a better time in my life.

Jessie was born that September, and she was beautiful.

The funny thing about us taking a whole year to get pregnant with Jessie, is that her little brother ended up being an accident when Jessie was only six months old.

Jessie was fifteen months old when her little brother Kyler was born.

Ethan and I just think it's so funny that after all of the struggles we went through to get pregnant the first time, we didn't mean to get pregnant again, but it happened anyway.

Kyler was the best surprise we had ever received, and he was a mini version of Ethan. It was so cute to see the way Kyler looked up to him.

One night, I crawled into bed, and Ethan kissed me on the forehead as we laid there. I smiled at him before I said, "Isn't it crazy that just a few years ago we were struggling so hard to have a baby, and now we have the two most amazing children?"

"It is," Ethan said. "But I wouldn't change a thing. All of that struggle was worth it."

I kissed him on the cheek. "It was."

"Now, we could have another one if you give some to me right now."

I laughed, gently shoving Ethan's shoulder. "Ethan, go to sleep. You have to work tomorrow."

His lips landed on my jaw as he started kissing my skin. "I'll just drink extra coffee in the morning, babe."

Ethan was too hard to resist. Even though we were married, he still managed to make me feel like we were teenagers who were crazy in love. I don't think that feeling will ever stop with Ethan.

Sure enough, two weeks later, I was looking down at another positive test.

————————————————————————

This idea was given to me by @JustALibra