How God's Gift Came to Us
In March and April of 2000, Mishkin and I had the bounty of going on a Baha'i pilgrimmage to the Holy Land in Israel. I would be finished my university degree at the end of April, so we decided it would be a good time to have another child. We decided to try to conceive another child while we were on Pilgrimmage and if it was a girl we would name her Haifa after the city in Israel where we were.
On the evening of March 31st, as I was falling asleep, I felt a huge wave hit my body. It was so powerful that it made my body shake. And then it happened again about 5-10 minutes later. Someone had once described to me this sensation as knowing exactly when their second child was conceived. So I told Mishkin that I thought that we had conceived a child that night.
Three days later in the Garden of Ridvan, a Persian woman on Pilgrimmage with us approached me and asked if she could ask me a personal question. She asked if I was pregnant. I told her that we were trying to conceive but wouldn't know for sure for a while. She gave me a big smile and said "Oh! You are pregnant." She explained how she could just tell these things from looking in my eyes. She was very sure of herself. I was just beaming with joy and excitement. It was such a glorious confirmation - I knew she was right.
Two weeks later, we visited a Baha'i university in Switzerland. After I told a woman this story, she said that the first time she saw me, she had whispered to her friend - I think that woman is pregnant. She said that I just looked pregnant.
At the end of April, I took a home pregnancy test and it came out negative. It didn't bother me because I was sure I was pregnant and that it just meant that I didn't yet have enough hCG in my system. I started to take prenatal vitamins.
In May, Mishkin's father came to visit and he kept commenting on how radiant I looked - almost as if I was... pregnant. And Mishkin's brother Alexei said that I looked like I did the last time I was pregnant. I finally took another pregnancy test and it showed up positive.
I think it's pretty funny that all these people could "just tell" but the pregnancy tests took a while longer. It was so nice to have a confirmation of the pregnancy so soon after conceiving. I knew right away that I was pregnant and I also knew it was a girl. It was a joyous gift from God while we were on Pilgrimmage.
