An ex-alcoholic who downed 24 beers and two bottles of wine every day has overcome her addiction and had an IVF baby.
Heather Ogburn Stokes, 36, of Houston, Texas, had been an alcoholic since she was just 11 years old and thought she'd never be able to have children of her own as her health had started to decline.
And after six miscarriages, Heather and her husband, Justin, 36, thought their lifelong dreams of beginning a family were doomed forever.
Incredibly, the couple’s wishes finally came true last year after Heather decided to ditch the booze and look into IVF; she gave birth to her daughter, Alice, in August.
Heather, who now runs a treatment center for addicts, said that she was an alcoholic since she was 11.
“I drank to numb pain, it was my solution and I couldn’t control it,” she said. “I would drink 24 beers and two bottles of wine every day. My health was declining and I was fighting for my life.
“Even my first miscarriage didn’t stop me.”
Heather finally decided to stop drinking in 2011 after she was arrested for driving under the influence when she totaled her car.
However, after meeting mechanic Justin and suffering six miscarriages, the birth of Alice following one round of IVF finally brought an end to Heather’s fertility nightmare.
“I’ve been given another chance in life,” Heather said. “One way or another I wanted to be a mother.”
Talking about her baby girl Alice, Heather said, “She’s amazing, she’s sassy and sweet. It was a tough pregnancy but she was worth it.”
“I had my first miscarriage in 2010,” she said. “I was in an unhealthy relationship with my ex-fiancé and I wasn’t healthy myself so I thought the loss was down to that.”
“It was devastating and I blamed myself. I had a few conversations with God.”
Heather said after she had two more miscarriages, she thought “it’s not meant to be.”
“[B]ut I cherished and honored them and thought they were my angels,” she added. “I kept just trying to push through and got out of that relationship and started to feel worthy enough to have a man who treated me well.”
“I rekindled a relationship with Justin because I finally felt worthy of him. I got my life together and we got married,” she said.
However, when Heather miscarried for the fourth time, she decided to go for IVF.
“It was a fairy tale but I miscarried at two months and it hurt more,” she said. “I thought I would fight for it because I was meant to be a mom so I started researching IVF.”
“The doctors found that I had clotting and I started to get discouraged because I had got pregnant on my own, I just couldn’t carry them.”
“We started IVF because we just wanted a baby.”
Once again, Heather got pregnant naturally, and this time she thought this must be their “miracle baby.” But sadly, she miscarried again.
“[I]t was devastating. It was happening back to back but I held onto hope,” she said. “I thought there was a reason we were going through this and just left it up to God.”
Now a mom of one baby daughter, Heather couldn’t be more thankful.
“I’ve got Alice, she’s my miracle girl. I thank God every day for my beautiful miracle child,” she said.
