‘Unscripted with Amber Hankins:’ The power of one photo, one prayer

One picture. That’s all it took for me to relive a memory tucked so deeply in my heart.

It was Jan. 9, 2022.

Christmas was over, and my daughter Avery didn’t get the only thing she really wanted that year, the news of a new baby brother or sister on the way.

I kept telling her, “Soon, honey. Some day, we will add another little one to our family.”

When it came to fertility, I was never a woman who had any difficulties. I had no problems getting pregnant with Avery or Ledger, and I had no prior medical history to make me think otherwise this time around.

Somehow though, things just weren’t the same. Months and months went by, and no baby. I even had to return the “Big Brother/Big Sister Again” shirts I had bought the kids for Christmas, sure that I would have some exciting news to deliver by then.

But I didn’t. And those shirts were the most heartbreaking return I’ve ever had to make.

So much so, that on the night of Jan. 9, 2022, I broke down, and Avery heard my cries. I turn around, and I see her kneeling down in my bedroom, praying to the heavens above.

She’d say, “Please God. Let my mommy have another baby. I just really want to be a big sister again.”

Cue the momma tears.

In a sense though, I felt guilty.

Guilty for yearning for another baby when I already had two beautiful blessings. I knew there are so many women who struggle with fertility and would give anything to simply have one. Somehow though, I still felt an emptiness. I longed for another baby to join our family, and I was heartbroken to think it may never happen again.

Months after Avery’s sweet prayer, I learned I had developed Subclinical Hypothyroidism, (for reasons unknown) and things just weren’t connecting, fertility-wise. My doctor put me on medication, and everything quickly got back to normal.

I got pregnant just a short time later.

I look at this picture today, and it makes me cry and smile, all at the same time.

Sad for the difficulties we experienced, but happy I’ve raised a daughter with such a caring and loving heart.

And did you notice anything about the date I took the photo? I didn’t, until just recently. How timely.

Jan. 9, 2022, just one day after baby Brigham would be born the very next year.

One picture. One prayer.

Looking back, I like to think someone that night was listening.

And for Avery’s sake, and mine, I’m sure glad they were.