A couple in Texas is celebrating the impending birth of twins with a photo that speaks to the years they spent struggling with infertility.
The photo Garyt and Lauren Walker posted to social media features two baby jumpers, one emblazoned with “Worth the wait,” the other with “and wait and wait and wait.”
More poignantly, the baby jumpers are surrounded by the 452 In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Needles they used in a two-year campaign to become pregnant.
“We are overwhelmed with joy to finally announce that we are expecting boy/girl TWINS!!” the post reveals. “We prayed for 953 days…452 Needles, 1000’s of tears, 1 corrective surgery, 4 clomid/letrozole attempts, 2 IVF rounds, 3 failed transfers and & 1 Amazing GOD,” the caption on the couple’s photo announcement also states, adding:
We thought about how to announce our two miracles to the world. Everything we could think of fell short of doing them justice. Doing ourselves justice, for every trial and tribulation we have been through these past years. Taking out these needles by the handful to take this photograph was… surreal. Half way through my hands started to quiver, my breath got short, and I had to stop. I sat down, looked at it and started to cry. Not because I was sad about what it took to get here, but because it was a representation of my world, our world, for the past over two and a half years staring back at me. There was a lot of pain, hope, and fear behind each of these needles. Each one representes [sic] a different day, a different path, a different emotion. It’s a lot to take in. After a good cry, the more I looked at it, the more the needles started to blur together. Now all I see are these tiny onesies that so perfectly sum up our journey: Worth the wait. And wait, and wait, and wait.
The couple told ABC News that they spent about $50,000 to get pregnant–from operations to fertility treatments to the IVF treatments.
But through it all, their marriage stayed strong.
“We have heard stories of how going through infertility can really cause wear and tear in a marriage,” Walker told ABC. “[We decided] we come first. We need to make sure we are always taking care of each other first and foremost.”
Lauren insisted that all things come just when they are supposed to.
“Life happens the way that it’s supposed to happen,” she said. “Had this all happened the way I wanted to back in 2014, we would have different children and we would have a different life, and I know that these babies right now are meant to be here.”
The pair’s social media announcement is beginning to go viral.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.