Testimonies - Page 3 of 39 - Moms in the Making

Recently I attended the Moms in the Making leader retreat. Leading up to this weekend, I realized how much I really wanted friendships with other women who felt like sisters to me. Although I have an older sister, she chose to take a different path than me and I have missed having that sisterly relationship.

I’ve been praying for years for Kingdom sisters and while at the leader retreat the Lord showed me that I have several sisters who love me.

I’m so grateful the Lord answered my 10+ year prayer for community and sisterhood. He is so good!

Joyce Stone – North Carolina
I married Erwin in March 2018. Even before our wedding, we knew we wanted children. Six months after we got married we decided to go for it.

At first, I wasn’t that worried. However, as it started to take longer, I began to wonder if everything was ok. After two years we decided to go to the doctor. We didn’t figure much out besides that my thyroid gland was working too slowly.

We didn’t know what was going on, and therefore there was no ready-made solution. This is when the doubts and many ‘why’ questions began. Why does it happen for others and not me? What is wrong with me? I felt like I failed as a woman because I couldn’t conceive.

From then on it went downhill. Because of the pain I felt in my heart, I started to isolate myself and my heart became harder and harder. I became distant from God. The disappointment I had been experiencing every month made me very angry.

When my husband and I decided to go to another church, a Spirit-filled church where faith was preached, things slowly began to change. I recognized that I had believed lies, and began to replace those with the truth of the Word. I discovered that it is God’s will that we be fruitful and multiply.

During a moment of prayer, a deep repentance came to my heart and I cried out to God, “Forgive me, Lord, for being so angry and believing the wrong things. It’s not your fault!” I cried tears. From that moment on, my heart softened and I could hear His voice again. Every day I spoke God’s promises about our situation and my body.

Then God showed me that I was still in bondage due to past sins. The next day, I went straight to a deliverance service and was completely set free. Less than a month later I had a positive test in my hands (after 4 years of infertility)! After repentance, obedience to God, and faith in action, the breakthrough finally came. Hallelujah!

Our daughter Chloë was born on June 20th, 2023. I’m still amazed at what God has done!
“God Remembers” is how I would summarize my testimony. I remember when my husband and I had friends on child number 2 and 3 and we were struggling to get one. My family and friends would often suggest that I try IVF, adoption or other routes, but God wouldn’t allow my spirit to agree with any of those options.

As I began studying God’s Word more in-depth, He led me to Hannah and showed me that just as Hannah desired, what I desired was also possible simply through prayer, asking and faith in Him. God showed me that while there were other options and methods to choose from, this was not His desire for me and that I could solely rely on His way, just as Hannah did. So I did just that.

He blocked every other option to open my eyes and show me that, for me, there was only one way. I’m so thankful that He did because He gets all the glory for the child He blessed us with!

I also remember joining the Moms in the Making virtual group, and as these women began to share their pain, I started praying and interceding for God to bless our group in a mighty way by opening up our wombs and bringing forth children and He did just that. The majority of the women in our group began to conceive and give birth within a 2-year timeframe, including myself. I’m forever a witness to what the power of prayer did not only for me but for other women as well!

Miracle Douglas – Florida
I wasn’t going to attend the Moms in the Making Leader Retreat because I didn’t have the money to pay for airfare and lodging. I asked for an extension to give me time to come up with the money and was graciously given more time.

After a week, I decided I was going to tell the team that I wasn’t going to be able to go, but then I received an email that someone had anonymously paid the way for me to go.

I was completely shocked and overjoyed that someone had paid! How generous and kind! I thanked God for making this possible. I’ll forever be grateful because I got to attend the retreat! It was a great experience and helped me realize how God is always at work!
At the leader retreat, we completed an activity where we wrote anything we wanted to surrender to the Lord. I felt led to write “discouragement” on my paper. I have been contending for healing and hope in a few areas of my life, such as becoming a mom, dealing with anxiety and depression, and experiencing pain in my right foot. We took our papers outside and burned them to visualize the surrender to God.

At the end of the day, I was walking out the door and three ladies stopped me. They wanted to pray over me before I left because I was leaving early the following morning for an appointment at the fertility clinic. Their thoughtfulness truly touched my heart because they laid their hands on me and believed miracles were on the way.

After we finished praying, I thanked and hugged each of them. Nicole said that she kept hearing God say, “Get your hopes up!” I believe He was declaring hope for my future, fertility journey, mental and physical health and every area of my life because He is the God of hope. I’ve already experienced hope, peace, and joy; I know in my soul that there is so much more to come.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Stephanie Yeckering – Kentucky
In 2017, my husband and I celebrated three years of marriage. We were excited to start “trying” for our first baby. Having had very painful periods and ruptured ovarian cysts, my GYN planned surgery to remove the cysts to prepare for pregnancy. During this surgery, doctors discovered cancerous ovarian tumors and could not proceed.

A weight, grief, and shock swept over my husband and me; we went from being excited to start trying for a baby to being worried about saving my life. We were given a referral to an oncologist.

During this time, I was encouraged by Moms in the Making posts and words of encouragement on their social media.

Yet still – we were faced with several decisions for our oncologist – save my ovaries, save my uterus and/or save my life. After a major abdominal surgery, my ovaries were removed and the oncologist was able to save my uterus. Praise God that the cancer had not spread!

The desire to grow our family remained and we grieved the ability that was taken from us. We never had the chance to get pregnant “naturally.” Our options were adoption, donor egg IVF or surrogacy. All were very expensive out-of-pocket options for us – options we could not afford on our own.

After much prayer, therapy and conversations, we decided to start with donor egg IVF. My heart’s desire was to find a Christian egg donor but I knew it would be so difficult.

God provided funding. We met a Christian couple who said they wanted to help us. The wife offered to undergo an egg retrieval and donate eggs to us. God provided 13 eggs in 2019. In early 2020, we were supposed to transfer one of the five embryos we were able to freeze but then COVID shut the IVF facilities down.

In the fall of 2020, we transferred one embryo, and now we praise God for our healthy baby girl. God made a way! He protected me from cancer, He provided the funds, the egg donor and the embryos!

Rhema Limon – California
In 2018, we began trying to grow our family. After two miscarriages, I received a diagnosis of an autoimmune disorder called APS (Antiphospholipid Syndrome), which can cause blood clotting and miscarriage. My doctor added blood thinners to my protocol but I had two more miscarriages. I was so angry and confused. I knew God was good but didn’t understand why He “wanted” me to walk through all of this trauma and heartache.

I discovered Reproductive Immunology and began working with a specialist in 2020. He added interventions to my protocol, but I still had two more miscarriages. 1 month after my 6th miscarriage, I found Moms in the Making and joined a support group. Everything changed.

Our 2nd meeting was about surrender, and I was so convicted. I had been striving from my knowledge and strength to “make” this happen because I didn’t truly trust God. I went to my first Moms in the Making conference two months later and I was so overwhelmed by God’s love. He healed so many parts of my heart that weekend, including the trauma of my first miscarriage.

After the conference, I began listening to the A Cup Full of Hope podcast. Truth became clear, and lies were stripped away. I no longer believe that “everything happens for a reason” or that God causes hardship to teach lessons. Now I walk in confidence that my Father will deliver me…that He is a faithful, good, loving, promise keeper…and that His will is for fruitfulness and fertility. I realized that my fight was not against flesh and blood but against evil. My intimacy with the Father grew, and I learned how to step into the Authority that Jesus has provided.

In 2022, God provided financially for us to start IVF through a sudden change in my employer benefits. I went through 2 egg retrievals and, finally, a frozen embryo transfer. Thanks to a million little miracles, I had a healthy, full-term pregnancy. We welcomed our miracle boy in May of 2023. God has genuinely traded us beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. What a good, good Father.

Melissa Ellering – Minnesota
Back in the spring of 2023, I was diligently trying to find a part-time weekend job that offered fertility coverage as my husband and I couldn’t afford treatments. I already had a full-time job; however, they didn’t have insurance that covered fertility coverage.

I applied for several retail jobs and was hired at Tractor Supply. After a month of working there, any part-time employee would receive fertility insurance. I worked there for only one day of training. The next day, my mother called me to tell me she had breast cancer. At that moment I felt God and the Holy Spirit press on my heart to contact my employer to tell them the situation and tell them I wouldn’t be taking the job offer.

My mother wanted to do alternative cancer treatments; however, insurance wouldn’t cover it, so my siblings and I started a GoFundMe, and within three weeks, we were able to raise close to $30,000 for her to go to Mexico. A few months later, I got laid off from my sales job, and at first, I felt depressed and discouraged.

After a month and a half, I applied to close to 300 jobs, and the job I have currently offers IVF coverage and will pay half for treatments. My mom also found out in that time frame that she is cancer-free!

Although our first IVF cycle didn’t go as planned, we are grateful to God for going exceedingly and abundantly blessing us with my mother’s health and financial provisions.

Anna Vanwagner – Indiana
When my husband and I started trying to grow our family, I felt like all my friends had kids before me, and my children would be much younger than theirs. The Father knew that sadness was on my heart and always planned to redeem it!

I had no idea then, but He had plans to bring one of my very best friends into my life through Moms in the Making: Jessica Spatz. Although we live across the country from each other, we have now gotten to experience pregnancy together not once, but twice! Her son and my daughter are just 15 weeks apart, and we are currently 15 weeks apart in our current pregnancies.

As an incredible fun bonus gift from God, many of my local friends became pregnant around the same time as me when we had our daughter following 5 years of infertility. Watching God surround my daughter with cute little playmates has answered a deep desire in my heart. God is so good, and He cares about the desires of your heart!

Brooke Simkins – Illinois
All my childhood I dreamed of being a mom. I was diagnosed with PCOS and endometriosis when I was 16, and the hope to have kids was low. The OB at the time told me if I wanted a chance at conceiving I’d need to try to have children in my early 20’s.

I got married in 2017 at age 28. My husband, Nick, and I started trying to grow our family right away. Within the first year of marriage, we experienced 2 chemical miscarriages and were crushed. We got pregnant on our own in 2020, only to end up with an ectopic pregnancy, which was almost fatal to me.

After these losses, we started medication (with a much more optimistic and helpful OB) to help me ovulate. After many failed cycles, we had one try left before needing to move on to further treatments, which we weren’t in a place financially to move forward with. With God’s timing, July of 2022, was the cycle that finally resulted in a positive pregnancy test!

9 absolutely beautiful months later, our little Patrick was born and has been the most amazing, little blessing.