Ali's Lessons Learned

I began my ketogenic diet in April 2017. In June, I did something I had done many times before. I took a pregnancy test. My hope were high, but realistically I knew it was unlikely that I would be pregnant. I had ovulated in May, but I had ovulated multiple times over the last year. This month would probably be no different. Except it was. Ever so slowly, a second line developed on that pregnancy test. What? For real? Was this actually happening? I snapped a picture on my phone, smiling like a fool. It had finally happened. I was pregnant. I went to Walmart to try to find a “Daddy's favorite” type onesie to use to announce to my husband. They did not have what I was looking for, but lucky for me, it was only a couple of weeks before Father's Day. I found the perfect card. On the front it read, “Who is a Dad?” The inside answered, “YOU. You is a dad.” Home again, I placed the two positive tests and the card inside a gift bag. I could hardly wait for my husband to arrive. He o...

I checked the clock. The numbers glowed green: 9:30. My sisters were all asleep, but I was still tossing and turning. Something felt off. I pictured my heart as a puzzle, the kind with a frame and pieces that simply matched up, not interlocked. A piece was missing. I wasn't quite sure what it all meant, but I knew I needed to talk to my dad.   I was a little apprehensive as I walked down the hallway to the stairs out of my grandparents' basement. A few weeks earlier I had been unable to sleep, frustrated and saddened and confused by the family situation. Why would God put my mom in the hospital with heart failure, then again with cancer? Why would He make my brother be born premature? Why did my dad have to spend so much time away from us, especially since Mommy wasn't around? Daddy had told me about Job, and I had been able sleep a little better. Now, though, I was supposed to be in bed. It was late, and Daddy was surely busy. But I had to talk to him. I knew t...