(Editor Note: This is the first in a series of blogs in which Kimberly Roberts will share her unique journey through pregnancy and the birth of her son.)

My husband and I decided to start trying for a baby soon after we got the news from the gastroenterologist. We were told that my health wouldn’t last – that dreaded “c” word was in my future and if we wanted a baby, now was our chance.

We weren’t really ready to start a family – we hadn’t even been married a full year – yet but we figured it was in God’s hands. We wouldn’t try, but we also wouldn’t prevent.

We found out we were pregnant two months later.

I think I can speak for all moms when I say that the moment you find out you are going to be a mom is a moment you never forget.

All of a sudden every decision you make effects someone else. You are the person in charge of this beating heart inside you.

What I wasn’t prepared for was what was going to happen next. Soon I would start the greatest fight of my life because not only would I be fighting for me, I’d be fighting for the life of my unborn child. What I didn’t know is this is where my fight begins, and I didn’t know the fight would almost kill me.

I walked through the valley of darkness, the valley of sickness.

In the next couple posts, I will be writing about my family’s journey – a journey I’ve been told is one of the most difficult pregnancies my obstetrician and neonatologist has ever seen. We’ll talk about the highs, the lows, and where we found God in between.

But what got me through the fight was the scripture passage Romans 5:3-5:

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

As I rock my baby boy to sleep I see that this verse I stated throughout my pregnancy fight  rings true – because in all my sufferings I now get to look at this baby boy. And where the fight begins, I’m holding hope in the end.

Copyright Kimberly Roberts