Back in the Sandbox!

What an adventure these past few months have been! I’m not quite sure where I left off last time, but I believe we were counting down to head back to the states for our summer vacation! What a trip this has been! Let’s start with the sad and end with the happy…

In May we found out we were expecting Baby Gallman #2! Zach and Braxton had been begging for another little one to add to the family so I figured I would join the bandwagon J The timing worked out perfect because the miserable sickness hit right at my last week of work before summer break. I spent that week doing my best to get to work before noon and trying to make it until 2pm when I could head home. I had an incredibly understanding manager and co-teacher who always responded to my texts with “take your time…” I’m not sure what I would have done had I needed to continue to work throughout the summer. Just like with Braxton, this sickness was debilitating. Lifting my head off of my pillow was the most difficult thing, not to mention having to bring Braxton to school and go to work myself. After about two weeks it began to subside. I was still nauseated, but it was manageable as long as I stayed on top of the hunger. I thought it was strange that I was so sick with Braxton and had started to become sick with this one, but then it just subsided out of nowhere. I had some minor cramping on my left side but after googling, speaking to others, and speaking to my MD, I decided it was just a normal pregnancy thing and let it be- even though I never experienced it with Braxton… Every pregnancy is different, right? I went to my first appointment and was so excited to have an ultrasound! To my surprise, there was no heartbeat… but my doctor said to not be concerned as everything looked normal, I was still very early in the pregnancy, and to come back in two weeks before we head to the states to check for the heartbeat. The next two weeks went by and we started to get very excited for our trip coming up!! We were traveling back to the states for the first time since we left! My next doctor appointment came and I was excited to hear this heartbeat and get on with visiting my family! The doctor had an emergency surgery to leave for right in the middle of my appointment, so we waited for three hours in her office until she returned. They offered us to leave and reschedule but I just couldn’t travel without hearing #2’s heartbeat. Much to my surprise, when she began the ultrasound, I knew immediately something was wrong. It was empty. There was no small “blueberry” as I had read. And much more than that, no heartbeat. We decided to do some labs and see if my HCG (pregnancy) levels were up. I left super sad that day, but much to my surprise, Zach was fine. He was believing it was still too soon to hear a heartbeat. He had no concerns and I chose to believe as he did. The next morning I received a called from the doctor to say that my levels were 13,000 and while that number is good, there should have been a heartbeat and she proceeded to tell me I would miscarry. We discussed my options and I decided that just like with Braxton’s birth, I would let me body do what it is supposed to do. Terrified. Scared. Sad. Angry. Questioning. So many emotions. Was she really correct? Or was God going to pull a miracle? This was one of those times that I WANTED to be wrong and my husband be right!! We were leaving for the states in 5 short days and while I wanted to be excited for the trip, I couldn’t help but just be sad. We had already told Braxton he was going to be a big brother. We had already shared it on Facebook! 4 days later (one day before we left) I took it upon myself to see another doctor to have my HCG (pregnancy) levels tested again. Much to my surprise, it was over 100,000!! My levels were increasing! This could only mean this was a healthy pregnancy, right?! It was enough to give me some hope to be excited and continue my happiness of packing and getting ready for our big flight the next morning. We made the flight and landed happily and safely in good ole Atlanta! Days turned into weeks and still the miscarriage was not happening. Maybe everything was fine? The tough part was my medical insurance only covered in the UAE, not in the US so I really didn’t want to go to a doctor unless it really was an emergency. After waiting for three weeks and nothing happening, I decided to take advantage of our travel insurance and put my mind at ease and went to the emergency room. To our disappointment, the ultrasound confirmed our worst fears. It looked the same as it did the first ultrasound. Empty. No heartbeat. Sad. Not many other words could describe what I had felt in my gut from the second ultrasound. Sometimes, you just know. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, my gut told me otherwise. Finally the miscarriage began and it is now beginning to complete itself. I can’t even begin to express my thanks to everyone who prayed for/layed hands on us, left comments on Facebook, asked God with us to give this baby a heartbeat, sent me private messages, and encourage us during this sad season. Many people have asked if I could go back would I still post it on Facebook so soon? My answer, yes. Those first few weeks were so joyous and I was so happy to have so many people sharing in our joy as we were so excited to announce our second baby. And when the miscarriage was confirmed, the amount of encouragement was incredible and had we not already announced, I don’t know if we would have had such a great outpouring- simply because not everyone would have known. And if we get pregnant again, I will announce early once again. Braxton is doing well, knowing he will see his sibling in Heaven one day and finally get to see if it was a boy or girl J Zach and I are doing well also. The sadness comes in waves, but for the most part we are doing fine. Am I angry with God for taking our baby? Not at all. For His plans are FAR better than ours and He sees the whole picture. We are resting in His promise that He is sovereign (completely in control) and only does things for our good. We know and believe that nothing catches Him by surprise and this was planned before even the foundation of the Earth. I was thankful to be with my family during this time and thankful that nothing happened on the airplanes. I am being open and vulnerable because through typing it out and talking about it, it helps me through this time. I also am being open about it because when all you see are Facebook pictures, it’s probably easy to think that our lives are all joyous and easy living here. And while we have endless joy because of our King, we are still human and have struggles of our own. I’ll end this portion of the blog post by quoting what a dear friend encouraged me with… “I am so sorry your babies time was so short on earth, but what more could we want as parents than for ultimately our children to be with their maker and Father?”

GEORGIA! 4 weeks of GEORGIA! 4 weeks of Chick fil A, Zaxbys, Waffle House, and Taco Bell! Oh, and family too J Really though, I was SO good to see all of our family! Braxton thoroughly enjoyed being with the grandparents (and currently withdrawing from sugar and 24/7 attention). We spent most of our time in our hometown, Calhoun, but ventured down to Savannah to see some great people and enjoyed catching up with everyone. Our first weekend was a wedding weekend where we saw Britt (Zach’s sister) and her fiancé become one! We spent most of our trip planning lunch and dinner dates with friends and family and while it was a great time catching up, it was so busy! We took one day and ventured up to the mountains to an apple orchard and had some super yummy fresh apple pies and apple fritters (mmmm). Which also brings me to the point that we gained so. much. weight. in four weeks!! I won’t post on here how much, but let’s just say we are also detoxing from fried, processed American food (but boy was it good!) Saying “see you laters” are never easy and it was an emotional farewell back to the Sandbox. We spent an 8-hr layover in Germany exploring, and after almost missing our flight back, it was a really cool visit. We ended up on the wrong train, as in, it was going to the airport but we had the wrong ticket. The guy was graceful and let us continue to the airport (a 10 minute ride) on the long-distance sleeper train! We spent two days in Dubai at our hotel and literally didn’t leave until we came back to Abu Dhabi because we were just sooo tired. But I have never been so happy to pull up to our apartment complex and come into our home. And our bed has never felt so good. We unpacked the next day and have been enjoying our restful time back. We have about two more weeks before the school year begins! Braxton starts “big school” this year and we are so excited to see how he does! We are slowly getting over the jet lag and I think in a few more days, we will be good!

I’m sure there is more that I am forgetting as this seems much shorter than I had imagined. I know Zach is working on his blog so hopefully he will fill in the gaps I am forgetting.

Until next time…

Love to all from Abu Dhabi!