Good Things Come to Those Who Wait | The Story of Emily Carver

My older sister has graced us with her testimony. This is a hard story for her to share, so I’m thankful she has trusted us with it. I hope you will learn from it as much as I did.

For whomever it concerns, please keep in mind that she discusses the pain of experiencing multiple miscarriages.

Within the first 6 months of my husband and I getting married, I grew bitter towards God.

I would go to church to look like a good person, but I was angry on the inside. I felt betrayed.

I had gotten pregnant about a month into our marriage. We were so excited to welcome a baby into our lives, but our anticipation quickly became grief. Early into the pregnancy, I had a miscarriage.

I immediately got pregnant again, but we lost that child as well.

Then, without even trying, doing our best to avoid it, we got pregnant a third time in a row. I made it to my 12-week ultrasound. That was where I learned it was twins, but one of them had passed.

I was so excited for the one I had gotten to the 12-week mark, but I was also brokenhearted over losing its twin. Why would God repeatedly give me something so good just to take it away?

About 9 months into our marriage, my husband had a lump show up on his stomach. The bulge underneath his skin caused excruciating pain.

Even though I was still frustrated at God, my upbringing came into play. My mom taught me that God can perform miracles, so I leaned into that.

I would lie beside my husband every night and lay a gentle hand to his stomach, begging God to fix it. I told Him that He could give the pain to me. As long as God healed my husband, I didn’t care.

I did this religiously for a month or two.

But it only got worse.

Again, in my mind, this was another way that God ignored my voice. Another way that he was hurting my husband and me.

My frustration morphed into anger and bitterness.

Because of all this, I don’t remember much from the first year of my marriage, which, subsequently, was 2020—the year of COVID-19. My husband and I fell so far behind in bills. All I did was lie in bed every day and cry my heart out.

After my daughter was born, I was in the hospital for almost a week. I had developed postpartum preeclampsia. I also developed pneumonia, so the nurses hooked me up to oxygen.

Then, when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I developed a UTI from e coli, my heart rate and blood pressure rose too high, and I ended up with MRSA in my bladder.

Why would God let this happen?

Once my health was stable, and I was able to enjoy my daughter, I started coming back around to my faith. I was still angry and confused about my loss, but I also gained the most beautiful gift.

Fast forward to earlier this year, we were trying to buy a house. We had the closing date set in stone, and it was a good thing because the homeowner of the house we were renting wanted us to move out.

His son had just moved back in town and needed a place to stay, so he offered us five grand if we moved out before the end of the lease.

Because we needed the money to cover the closing cost of our soon-to-be home, we happily accepted and moved in with my parents. We planned to stay for a couple of weeks—long enough to finish the closing process.

The day before closing, the bank called us and said they changed their mind. They felt like my husband’s job was too unstable for us to make the payments. This wasn’t true; they somehow misinterpreted our income. We tried to clear it up, but they had made up their mind.

Even though we had spent a couple thousand dollars on inspections, we lost out on the house. Another punch to the gut.

We decided to stay with my family for a little while longer, so we could reestablish our funds and find another house. Although we grieved the loss of the house, we felt God telling us to just wait.

In our waiting, we tried to stay calm, but I was pregnant with our second daughter and a few short months away from the due date.

Now we were stuck living in one bedroom with a toddler, my husband, myself, and a soon-to-be baby.

On top of that, my husband’s stomach was still in pain, but now it was increasingly getting worse.

We were almost certain that he had a hernia, but every doctor we went to told us that it didn’t “pop out right” to be a hernia. At this point, my husband had been dealing with the issue for four years.

We were exhausted.

As we prayed for God to open the doors for a new house, I also continued to pray for my husband’s healing.

Finally, we ended up finding a surgeon who confirmed that my husband did, indeed, have a hernia. He didn’t only have one; he had a cluster of them.

The doctor stated that my husband’s stomach resembled swiss cheese. Obviously, that wasn’t good news, but we were relieved to hear that it could be fixed.

I had my baby, and then my husband proceeded to have surgery a week later.

My delivery went smoothly, the surgery went great, and we had a few thousand dollars in savings to get us through the next couple of months that my husband was out of work.

He got to spend the first 6 to 8 weeks at home with me and our new daughter. With both of our bodies healing at the same time, the first week was rough.

Thankfully, since we lived with my family, they were able to help out a lot. Come to find out, not getting that house was a blessing in disguise. If we had gotten it, I would’ve had to do all the heavy lifting postpartum.

Over those years, there were a lot of things that I thought were an attack, a curse, or a way of God saying He didn’t care, but it all came together perfectly.

I’ve discovered that God doesn’t always answer our prayers when we ask for them, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t listening. He can see the future, and we can’t.

This doesn’t mean that the past hurts any less, or that I don’t wish we would have gotten the house, but it does mean I’m learning to trust in God’s timing. His ways are better than my own.

As God slowly reveals bits and pieces of His plan to me, I’m realizing how good He is, even if the world hurts sometimes.

One day, when I was stressed out about finding a house to buy, I heard a small voice in my head. It said, “Good things come to those who wait.”

I’m still waiting for a house, but I know that the wait will be worth it.

God does not inflict bad things. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. [Jesus has] come that [we] may have life, and that [we] may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10, NKJV)

I’m not saying my relationship with God is 10 fold what it was before all of that. Honestly, I feel like I have a long way to go, but now that I have experienced what I have, I have a new understanding of who God is.

God never left me. He saw me in my darkest moments, and He heard my every cry. My God faithfully stayed through it all.

With this new understanding, I’m learning how to build my relationship with God again, brick by brick.

Thank you for sharing your story, Emily! As I was watching from the sidelines, your story encouraged me so much in my own. ❤️

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