Endometriosis Doesn't Stop God's Plans

“Why? Why would you give me this desire if it's just going to be repeated deaths. Like it just felt horrible.” Sophie Rund still gets emotional when she thinks back on the hardships she and her husband, Joe, have endured. They had dreams of having a large family but an ultrasound revealed Sophie had stage four endometriosis, a disease in the uterus causing cysts, scar tissue, and infertility.

Her husband, Joe, recalled thinking, “This is something that she’ll have her entire life and from that diagnosis, you know, both understood that, you know, the life that we ourselves had planned, was a going to look a little different. I remember coming home, to her parent's house actually, and we just went up to one room and both just cried for hours, just not really knowing, you know, what the future was going to hold.”

Sophie had laparoscopic surgery to remove the cysts in her uterus which would make getting pregnant a possibility. She remembered, “I had family and friends praying for me through that. When the surgery came, like, I just knew that it was going to be a doorway to ultimately a family. So I was like, I'll do anything. I had the surgery and it was super successful.”

Four months after surgery, Sophie was pregnant and they soon welcomed their son, Brooks, into the world. She said, “The labor and delivery, and even the whole pregnancy, was just amazing. Like the process was so smooth and quick and just in awe of like the perfect little seven pound guy.”

Hoping their troubles were behind them, they soon tried to have a second child. Unfortunately a series of miscarriages dampened their hopes for adding to their family. Sophie said, “I just remember just laying on my bathroom floor, just pretty hopeless. To know that that can be like a repeated thing was just like, 'how do I really move on?'”

They returned to her doctor for another exam. Now, more bad news. The endometriosis had returned and was worse than before. Cysts and a blocked fallopian tube made getting pregnant impossible. Sophie said, “I was just a mess. I went upstairs and I just laid flat on my face and I was like, ‘Lord, today I am giving this to you.' This was like a change of heart, like almost my desire for Jesus and what He wanted became bigger than my desire for a big family. In that moment I got up and I just saw the world differently and I’ve never gone back."

They planned to start invitro fertilization which would require Sophie to have her fallopian tubes removed, preventing her ability to conceive naturally. Once again they asked for prayer from friends and family. Then a Christian friend shared a dream she’d had about Sophie. Sophie recalled, “The dream was that my sister and I were pregnant together and she's like, 'You were really close. We were celebrating with our family and friends. We had like a big baby shower and we were just big and pregnant together.' And I was like, that gave me hope. I'm like, well, maybe IVF will work the first time and we'll get to be pregnant together.”

With a renewed sense of hope they scheduled the IVF procedure. Then, the night before the surgery Sophie recalled having thought, "'You know what? I'm just going to take a pregnancy test because you just never know. I had seen so many negative tests, I know it will be negative, but I just want to rule it out.' And I looked down and I was like, 'oh!' It was the most bright positive pregnancy test. I was like, 'oh my!' I screamed and I woke up the whole house, ‘I’m Pregnant!’ I was supposed to be at the hospital like five hours later to report in for surgery and I was like well, oh my God. And based on the ultrasound, this was impossible, it looked impossible.”

Then, at her next ultrasound Sophie was given miraculous confirmation regarding the cysts and blocked fallopian tube. “And she was like, 'I see in your chart that you had those and I'm not seeing any on your... ' she's like, 'your ovaries, like everything looks great and normal.' And I'm like, ‘Oh my God!’ Joe is with me and I'm just looking at him like, she could even tell the side the baby implanted on, which was the side that was blocked, my left side. And so it was just that after that scan I remember that was at eight weeks. I remember being like, this is a true miracle. Like the cysts are gone, like these have to be surgically removed. They don't just go away.”

Months later Sophie delivered Palmer Hope, a healthy baby girl. Today she is a reminder that God still performs miracles and hears the cries of our hearts. “I remember when we like locked eyes for the first time and it was just like instantly calm. And I was...I just felt like I had known her forever. Like it was just such a...I'll never forget that moment. It was such a special moment. And I have treasured every single day with her.”

“You know what I think both Sophie and I learned is, you know, just to put our, our trust, put our hope in the Lord, and, um, you know, He's blessed this tremendously,” said Joe.

“The fact that He cares about me and my life that much, I'm just so thankful that He healed me and brought me these two beautiful babies. Like I just can't, I cannot believe it,” said Sophie.

Joe added, “Really just a reminder, every time we look at her, you know, her laugh or giggle, you know, that's, that's the Lord and that's the gift that He's given us, thankfully, to love and cherish for the rest of our lives."

“Every day is just I mean, I'm just so thankful every day,” said Sophie, “And I've just seen the goodness of the Lord so tangibly that it has just changed my life forever.”